Claims for the STEM building

Construction seems to be the new look for UNK’s campus. There’s a new fountain area being built, recently finished street construction, a new entrance sign on the east side of campus, and of course the new STEM building being built by West Center. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

It’s seems that most of the buildings on campus are typically named after white males who have had some kind of impact towards UNK. The new candidate names for the STEM building weren’t names of people, but seemed to be more of names to connect tie two sides of campus. (factual)

The options of the name of the STEM building aren’t anything inspirational to any of the departments within the building. (value) Some of the names for the new building are The Nexus, The LinK, Veritas Hall, and Discovery Hall. There’s more, but none that stick out or seem to make sense without the explanation given behind the suggestions. Most of the names of the buildings for UNK are primarily named after white males. (factual)

Katherine Johnson was one of the people behind getting John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. (factual) Johnson was one of the main mathematicians along with two other African American women. These women not only helped advance space travel for Americans, but also helped open doors for other women and people of color. (factual)

One of the men in charge of the calculations for the orbital mission didn’t trust electronics, so after the computer was done running tests, they asked Johnson to double check the numbers by hand. (factual)

Naming the STEM building after Katherine Johnson might help encourage other women and people of color to believe they can do great things like she did. (causal)

The name for the new STEM building should be named after someone of importance and who made history for a department like this. UNK’s new STEM building should be named after Katherine Johnson, one of the mathematicians that helped the first American astronaut orbit the Earth. (policy claim)