MIT DUSP

In a recent opinion piece for USA Today, DUSP Professor Amy Glasmeier challenges outdated definitions of the American middle class, arguing that rising costs for essentials like housing, food, healthcare, and education have fundamentally changed what economic security looks like. Her piece calls for a more realistic, needs-based understanding of middle-class life; one that better reflects the financial realities facing millions of households today.

🔗Click to read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2026/06/05/middle-class-inflation-food-healthcare/90275499007/

This spring semester, the Clinic students continued to facilitate the process of seeking public input on a proposed geothermal energy network (GEN) project in Salem, Massachusetts.

The students conducted a comprehensive stakeholder assessment, engagement mapping, and governance research to better understand community priorities and concerns regarding GEN deployment.

This project was undertaken in conjunction with a range of public and private partners and serves as a model for the Clinic’s view of the public service assistance universities ought to provide to frontline communities seeking to engage in climate adaptation and energy transition.

🔗Read more: https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/st-peters-seeks-public-input-on-potential-geothermal-
project/article_68de17dd-39be-451a-bd39-
60a3de8ff220.htmlJ

The MIT Renewable Energy Clinic was recently featured by the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA), highlighting how DUSP students are helping local officials update solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) while preserving the Town’s rural and agricultural character.

Through meetings with residents, research support, mediation assistance, and public education, the Clinic team has helped facilitate discussions on possible community benefits for future solar and BESS projects, including safety, environmental impacts, aesthetics, infrastructure, and community priorities.

The article emphasized the importance of collaborative planning and a community-centered approach as municipalities across the Commonwealth work to address renewable energy siting and permitting challenges.

🔗Read more: https://www.mma.org/plainfield-partners-with-mit-to-address-clean-energy-zoning/

During the Patriots’ Day weekend, 40+ MIT DUSP students traveled to New York City for our annual Career Trek, connecting with alumni and professionals across planning, transportation, housing, economic development, consulting, and real estate.

✨Thank you to the many organizations and hosts who welcomed our students and shared insights into their work, projects, and career journeys. We’re especially grateful to our alumni community for helping make this experience possible.✨

Swipe through for highlights from the trek →

Congratulations to DUSP students, Gabby Bashizi, Laura Dallabrida Leite e Silva, Temuulen Enkhbat, and Adeposi Adeogun on being named recipients of the 2026-2027 MIT Climate Project Student Innovator Award for the Langa Food Sovereignty Network.

The Student Innovator Awards support the bold and creative ideas of MIT undergraduate and graduate students to advance climate solutions or deepen understanding of the complex challenges shaping our planet’s future.🌱

🔗Learn more: climateproject.mit.edu/announcing-2026-2027-student-innovator-award-recipients

From legal memos and class discussions to sketches, diagrams, and pages of handwritten ideas - notes can tell stories beyond the classroom. MIT Admissions recently highlighted a “gallery of notes” from student coursework, including several Course 11 classes, offering a glimpse into the many ways students organize, create, and make sense of complex ideas. Sometimes learning looks less like perfect pages and more like a process in motion.📓✨

Examples from Course 11 classes including Land Use Law (11.367) and The City in Film
(11.139), alongside reflections on note-taking as both a learning tool and a creative practice.

🔗Value Added Newsletter: https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/gallery-of-my-notes/

DUSP lecturer Ezra Haber Glenn joined audiences to moderate a Q&A with the filmmakers at the Somerville Theatre for a special screening of Make Me Famous, a documentary exploring the gritty, electrifying, and sometimes brutal art scene of 1980s NYC.”🎬🗽

The event brought viewers into the creative energy and complexities of New York’s downtown art world, with a Q&A and discussion following the film that extended the conversation beyond the screen.

🔗Click link to watch the trailer: https://www.somervilletheatre.com/production/make-me-famous/

In a recent feature from MIT’s Spectrum, Professor Justin Steil draws on his experience as both a researcher and paramedic to uncover how extreme heat and natural disasters disproportionately impact vulnerable communities. From spikes in emergency calls in low-income neighborhoods to the long-term housing instability renters face after disasters, his work highlights the uneven realities of crisis response.

The takeaway? Smarter policy, better resource allocation, and more resilient communities can turn urgent data into lasting change.

🔗 Read more: https://betterworld.mit.edu/spectrum/issues/spring-2026/what-911-calls-and-natural-disaster-response-show/?device=mobile

Congratulations to our students on this incredible achievement! On April 28, 2026, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston announced the winners of its Affordable Housing Development Competition, bringing together graduate students across architecture, planning, real estate, finance, and policy to tackle real-world housing challenges.

The winning proposal, Gilman Junction, was led by DUSP students Kavish Gandhi, Phoebe Meyerson, Ben Paltiel, and Henry Walther, alongside collaborators from MIT Architecture and Harvard. Working closely with community partners Just A Start and the Somerville Community Land Trust, ICON Architecture, and finance mentor David Aiken, the team developed a visionary approach to affordable housing in Somerville.

Special thanks to faculty mentors Will Monson, Leslie Reid, and Gabrielle Aitcheson for their guidance and support.
🔗Click here to learn more about the competition and winning proposal: https://www.fhlbboston.com/proposal-
to-build-affordable-housing-in-somerville-wins-affordable-housing-competition/

Jason Jackson of MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning was recently featured in The Boston Globe, offering expert insight on Boston’s new food delivery permit rules and their potential unintended consequences for workers in the platform economy. His commentary highlights the complex relationship between innovation, regulation, and urban labor systems.

🔗Click Here to read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/23/metro/unintended-consequences-of-bostons-food-delivery-permits-for-uber-eats-doordash/

🔗Click Here for Paywall Free Version: https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx? artguid=4aa48ebb-5037-4bOa-a4af-
e2a16cd86c66&appcode=BOSUAT&eguid=1c1db545-c246-433f-94be-3cea878be68f&pnum=2