Campus Meaningful Reads, a project supported by the UW Tacoma Library, highlights the texts — books, articles, or creative writings — that have been meaningful to members of our campus community. It’s an event that provides the opportunity to grow spaces where students see their voices represented next to staff and faculty, and to understand how scholarship and creative outputs have impacted us in our lives.

This week we are featuring the meaningful reads of LeAnne Laux-Bachand and Alisa King!

LeAnne Laux-Bachand recommends the book: Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom

This book is an incredibly engaging and thoughtful mix of styles, including interviews with students striving to obtain a college degree. It introduced me to the concept of predatory inclusion, the excesses of credentialism, and when the answer to a job crisis isn’t another degree but instead a movement like Fight for 15.

Find Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy in the UW Libraries!

Alisa King recommends the book: Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity by Angela Velez

When I joined Real(lit) Book Club with the UW Tacoma Library, we read Fat Chance, Charlie Vega and had the amazing opportunity to meet the author, Crystal Maldonado. I had asked her for book recommendations and this novel was one of them. Lulu and Milagro’s Search For Clarity is a story about sisterhood. It features a trio of latinx sisters figuring out their identities; within their family, with themselves, and how they interact with the world around them. The details were very similar to my family: three sisters being raised by their mom, the oldest attends college out of state, and my younger sister’s nickname is Lulu as well. But the relationships that the girls have with each other and with their mom is also similar to how we interact, so I knew that my sister needed to read it as well. I laughed, and cried with this book, and it was so nice to read about a family that was like the one I grew up with and be able to share a book with my younger sister.

While we’re working to add this to our collection in the UW Libraries, you still check out Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity through one of our Summit partners. Need help? Ask us how! 

Thank you for sharing, LeAnne and Alisa!

Would you like to participate in Campus Meaningful Reads? Let us know by filling out this participation form!