Noted sociologist, writer and cultural critic Tressie McMillan Cottom made a case for investing in a more equitable approach to higher education at the University of Washington Information School’s Ed Mignon Distinguished Lecture on April 13.

McMillan Cottom, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, told an audience of more than 200 people online that after decades of framing higher education as the key that unlocks career success, “we have a reality problem.” For some, particularly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, going to college and accumulating student debt has made life harder, she said.

"It is said that every badass woman has a group chat that keeps her lit. The chat that lifts me up — and holds me down — is full of my Black feminist BFFs being honest about life, love, money, and culture. Hear to Slay is that group chat, set to ten."

Tressie McMillan Cottom