Roxbury Community College (RCC) was founded in 1973 to provide higher education opportunities for communities of color in Boston. About 90% of the approximately 1,200 students who attend RCC each year are persons of color who come from lower-incom e homes in Roxbury and nearby communities. About 64% of them receive student aid. RCC offers 24 associate degree programs, 6 credit-based certificate programs, 13 non-credit professional certification programs, 30+ lifelong learning and fitness classes, and customized incumbent worker training programs. Since its inception, RCC has also partnered with local organizations to make its resources and amenities accessible to the larger community, and it hosts hundreds of civic and community events at its Reggie Lewis Center and Media Arts Center each year. In 2021, the US Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education recognized RCC as a Predominately Black Institution. RCC is the only community college in the northeast to receive this designation, which helps it to position itself to support students, faculty, and the community.

Address: 1234 Columbus Avenue, Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120
Website: http://www.rcc.mass.edu/ 
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RCC’s Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) will be a brand-new community meeting and educational center; a living learning laboratory focused on preparing RCC students to obtain jobs and develop their own small businesses in the growing high performance building sector. Located in the soon-to-be-renovated David Dudley House on RCC’s campus, CESJ will incorporate the latest innovations in building decarbonization technology and provide inspiration for both students and community members who are concerned about the impact of climate change. CESJ will also provide an ADA-accessible new site for community educational and cultural events. At CESJ, residents will have new opportunities to experience RCC’s campus and its resources. 

Built in 1825, the David Dudley House is a 7,000 square foot, three-story, Federal style building on 2.37 acres. It is located on RCC’s campus and within the Roxbury Heights Historic District listed on the Massachusetts State Register of Historic Places. The house was a private home for the Dudley family for almost 65 years before being turned over to the Archdiocese of Boston in the late 1800s and to nonprofit educational and human service uses in 1970. It is currently vacant and in significant disrepair. RCC seeks to restore the exterior of the building in keeping with its original time period and retain as much of the historic interior as possible, while transforming the building into the Center for Economic and Social Justice. 

The property is located at 167 Centre Street, on the Roxbury Community College campus. It is 0.5 miles (a 10-minute walk) from Roxbury Crossing station and 0.9 miles (an 18-minute walk) from Nubian Square station.

David Dudley (1787-1841) was a descendant of Thomas Dudley (1576-1653), who served four terms as governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Although there is no evidence that Thomas Dudley owned slaves, he was governor while the laws establishing slavery in Massachusetts were developed and approved. His son, son-in-law, grandsons, and greatgrandsons owned slaves. It is unlikely that slaves lived or worked at the David Dudley house because it was built more than 40 years after slavery was abolished in Massachusetts in 1783, but David Dudley’s family wealth and money he earned through his career in pre-Civil War banking helped build the house. 

In 2015, a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that the median net worth nof a White family in Boston was almost $250,000 while the median net worth of a Black family was only $8.00. The number of good jobs in the clean energy sector is growing exponentially, and the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act is expected to create 9 million jobs over the next decade; jobs that are critical to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. CESJ will promote economic and social justice by serving as a training center and living laboratory for an estimated 100 low-income students of color each year who, due to systemic societal and economic disparities, have been kept from educational, employment and small business development opportunities in future-proof, living wage job sectors like clean energy. CESJ will then collaborate with community-based organizations to bring student learning into the community: students will gain hands-on experience while helping low-income property owners to adapt their homes and businesses for greater energy efficiency and affordability. This will provide economic and social justice to residents who have been denied the benefits of clean and affordable energy in their community, encourage students to start their businesses in Roxbury, catalyze workforce development in Roxbury, and pave the way for further investment. Rehabilitation of the Dudley House will also turn a campus eyesore into an asset and enhance the value of nearby homes and properties.

CESJ will become the first net zero historical restoration in Massachusetts. A Zero Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created onsite or offsite, using technology such as geothermal wells, heat pumps, high efficiency windows and insulation, and solar panels. Historical restoration is a specific skill that incorporates old and new construction techniques to preserve a dated building. It provides a way to protect and safeguard the existence and appearance of historical elements, not only in a building but in a community. Net zero historic restoration of the Dudley House will preserve the unique character of the building while creating an example of what is possible for existing buildings in Roxbury in the 21st century.

RCC installed a geothermal cooling and heating system on campus in 2017. The system serves four classroom and administration buildings totaling almost 292,000 square feet and provides savings of almost 83,000 kWh per year. According to ENERGY STAR, the median site energy use intensity (EUI) for colleges and universities in the US is 84.3 kBtu/ft2. A 2022 audit 3 of RCC’s system showed that its total EUI is as much as 30 kBtu/ft2 lower than the median, thanks largely to its geothermal cooling and heating system. RCC also installed a solar photovoltaic array over one of its parking lots in 2017. Through a net metering agreement with a national clean energy management company, RCC receives monetary credit for the energy generated by this array.

RCC has recently begun partnering with Power Corps Boston and A Better City to pilot an entry-level commercial building operations program. Twelve participants ages 18-30 from Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan are attending 18 weeks of combined in-class training and onsite internships with industry partners, including Mass General Brigham, Federal Reserve, Dana Farber, Boston Properties, and Beacon Capital Properties. Students are learning core concepts of operating, maintaining, and evaluating building performance and indoor environmental quality, as well as fundamentals of building automation systems, HVAC control sequences, programming, and working with vendor-agnostic programming software to sequence operations that maximize building energy efficiency. At the end of the training, students will compete in a procurement exercise and be required to demonstrate how to measure and benchmark energy performance in building operations, including conducting an energy audit on RCC’s campus and comparing it to their internship site. This pilot is an exciting step forward for RCC, its partners, and local students, and will form the basis for training programs at CESJ. 

CESJ will be a public building on the RCC campus used daily by RCC students studying green building technology and business entrepreneurship and engaging in related research. An important part of this work will include collaborations with local community, nonprofit, and forprofit organizations on programs and events that educate the public about building decarbonization technology, green business development, higher education, and Roxbury and Boston history. RCC also has a long history of supporting rental of its indoor and outdoor facilities. RCC’s request and rental processes are designed to be non-burdensome. Community, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations seeking to use CESJ will be asked to submit a brief space request via an electronic form available on RCC’s website. The request will be reviewed by RCC’s Events Committee, comprised of the College’s Events Manager, Special Projects Manager, Executive Vice President of Compliance and Operations, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, and the Chief Financial Officer. Applicants will receive a response within one week. RCC anticipates hosting dozens, if not hundreds, of community enrichment events at CESJ every year. 

Key RCC leaders involved in the project include Interim President Jackie Jenkins-Scott, Executive Vice President for Finance and Facilities Andy Vidal, Interim Executive Vice President and Special Assistant to Interim President Marta Rosa, and Special Projects Manager Ruben Flores. These leaders meet regularly with a 14-member Project Advisory Committee consisting of Boston leaders in the architectural, real estate development, passive house, and clean energy sectors. RCC has also established an internal committee of RCC students and faculty who are advising on CESJ’s usage of the renovated building, program design, and 4 community impacts. CESJ has the active support of federal, state, and local elected officials, including US Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, US Representative Ayanna Pressley, State Senator Liz Miranda, State Representative Chynah Tyler, Assistant Undersecretary of Economic and Housing Development Juan Vega, Boston City Council President Ed Flynn (District 2), City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson (District 7, which is RCC’s district), City Councilor Liz Breadon (District 9), City Councilor Julia Mejia (At-Large), the Boston Black Elected Officials Group, and City of Boston’s Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion Segun Idowu. RCC manages the Dudley House with oversight from the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM). To date, DCAMM has completed a certified study of the property and cost estimates for external renovation. It will manage the entire renovation process.

The Roxbury Community College Facilities Division Maintenance Crew maintains RCC’s physical plant. When fully activated, CESJ will become the Division’s responsibility, and the cost of maintenance will be incorporated into its annual operations budget. RCC maintenance taff, like all Roxbury Community College staff, are state employees.

RCC has raised $4 million in Community Project Funding through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. This money is being used to complete historically sensitive stabilization and repairs to the building envelope. The total cost of the project is estimated at $12 million. RCC has begun working with MassDevelopment to obtain funding, is seeking state grants, and is reaching out to Boston-area corporate and private funding partners. 

RCC and the RCC Foundation must raise money for design and renovation of CESJ’s interior spaces. Costs will include installation of high-performance cooling, heating, and water/sewer management systems; ADA adaptations, including an elevator; and renovations and fit-out for classrooms, bathrooms, and community spaces. RCC needs cash donations especially, but would also welcome other types of support, including in-kind materials and services.

Jennie McDonald-Brown (She/her/hers)
Executive Director of Development
Roxbury Community College
1234 Columbus Avenue
Roxbury, MA, 02120
Building 3, Suite 533
Office Phone: 857-701-1282
Cell: 617-331-3849
Email: jmcdonaldbrown@rcc.mass.edu