Context

The Merrimack Valley has played a seminal role in the nation’s industrial development. However, this has brought repeated economic and social challenges. Through the years, the region has beem a real-world laboratory of complex issues, ranging from technological innovation and its environmental impact to the dynamics of multicultural communities and public health challenges. The city of Lowell stands as a work-in-progress. It is regarded as an extraordinary example of a community that chose continually to recycle itself and is recognized worldwide as a premier model of a revitalized industrial city.

Nearly a hundred years ago, the region’s textile industry slid into decline and the city did not fully recover until the high tech revolution of the 1970s. When the minicomputer industry collapsed and federal defense spending declined, Lowell again faced bleak economic times. Each time the University embarked on changes to stabilize its own fiscal position and to engage more closely with businesses and community groups.With the recent downturn of telecommunications and Internet businesses in Massachusetts, the region and campus again face the challenges of restructuring and rebuilding.

THE BROADER CONTEXT

What makes a sustainable region? Examples of failures abound – regions that have depleted natural resources, depend on a single industry with absentee owners, or have apathetic citizenry. But a region is more than the sum of its assets, whether
tangible, educational, or economic. It relies on the ingenuity and creativity of its people.

Vitality and quality of life grow out of varied options for work, a living wage for most and a safety net for the few, education that is accessible regardless of wealth, freedom from fear of violence, clean air and water and reliable power, places of refreshment and beauty, invention and creativity, and a grass-roots democratic process. Social and economic problems are part of human existence. However, a sustainable region offers effective settings for managing change, from
discussions over coffee cups in diners and church basements, to meetings of police leaders with community groups, to research forums in universities, to committees of state leaders and legislators. These problems and conditions offer a continuing set of opportunities for a university seeking to serve its community.