Amongst our student body are our future nurses and doctors – those who we entrust our lives to in some of the most difficult stages of our lives.
We owe them a lot.
With new facilities in the works and heavy promotion, the push for UNK’s healthcare programs is visually evident. It’s an important field, and we believe its recognition and advancement is important and deserved.
But this push for promoting programs should be seen across all campus majors.
The rest of us can not be forgotten.
In the last five years, campus has slowly been expanding west. Modern and state-of-the-art facilities, including Discovery Hall, the STEM building, and the Rural Health Education Building, set to finish by December 2025, are paving the way for a stronger west campus presence.
With west campus’ continual development, we worry that east campus will be left behind.
Upgrades and new developments have been made for the STEM and healthcare facilities. UNK’s other programs deserve just as much focus, attention and recognition – in both their facilities and how they are being promoted.
Our University has a wide variety of educational opportunities for incoming students, offering more than 200 majors. It’s important to showcase that. To do so, we must see the same upgrades on the east side of campus as we are starting to see on the west side.
There have been a few renovation and construction projects on east campus, including the Calvin T. Ryan Library and Fraternity and Sorority Life dorms. We were also happy to see new sidewalks installed across campus and new floors and paint in the Ponderosa room in the Nebraskan Student Union.
Still, there are more areas that need to be addressed.
Thomas Hall, which houses the English, modern languages and philosophy departments, lacks climate control abilities. This is a big problem for students trying to focus in class who are either overheating or freezing. The same issue has been seen in campus residence halls, which have a history of broken air conditioning and heating units.
One dorm finished renovations this summer and was given a more modern look, but the upgrade hasn’t come without new issues. Randall Hall was affected by a water main break on the first day of school.
By permanently fixing issues like these and modernizing more buildings, UNK’s value would increase. Not only would campus be visually with the times, but these changes would also show that all programs matter to the University.
We can’t let other programs and facilities be overlooked. We are grateful for what we have and recognize all that UNK has to offer. Because of that, we want UNK to have a high value in the eyes of incoming students, especially as the enrollment cliff draws near.
We ask that the push UNK is placing on healthcare be seen in more programs.
For these changes to happen, the money has to come from somewhere. Apart from applying for grants, we suggest reaching out to our community.
The Kearney community has always been supportive of UNK and willing to help. When it comes to bettering our campus, they’re always first in line.
We can not stop at bettering our healthcare programs. The focus must expand to reach all students so UNK can be a fierce competitor amongst colleges.
