OPINION: UNM internship program an endearing legacy of 'radical optimist'
Sen. Fred Harris, who recently passed away on Nov. 23, was a self-described “radical optimist.” He developed this identity serving as a a U.S. senator from Oklahoma from 1964 to 1973, a time of deep division, civil rights protests, the Vietnam War, and political assassinations, including that of his best friend in the Senate, Robert F. Kennedy.
Just a few weeks ago, at a talk about his book he published at the age of 93, he repeated his assertion of radical optimism, a rare stance now when trust in government institutions and confidence about democracy is alarmingly low. His optimism was not a rosy lens on hard realities; it was a deeply rooted commitment to the possibilities of democracy. He said, “optimism with action makes it happen.”
Fred understood the power of our democracy to transform society. As a senator from Oklahoma, he was instrumental in addressing the injustice of the stolen lands returning Blue Lake to the Taos Pueblo.
When charged by President Lyndon Johnson to serve on the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission, Fred pushed to ensure the investigation was not performative. Instead, after a comprehensive effort of listening to experts and visiting communities across the country, the report detailed the ways in which discrimination had permeated our institutions. Its conclusion that white racism was at the core of the riots reverberates today as one of the strongest statements ever published on race relations in the U.S.
When given the opportunity to serve as CEO and chair of the Democratic National Committee, he worked to reform the way we nominate U.S. presidents, helping to bring the voice of the people directly into the selection process in the early 1970s.
After leaving national politics in 1976, Fred focused on shaping the future by joining the University of New Mexico as a political science faculty member, where he dedicated himself to teaching college students. Over time, legions of UNM students were educated in the finer points of U.S. government by Fred, whose deep intelligence, practical experience, and inexhaustible wit mesmerized his pupils. He taught courses in Native American and tribal politics, political parties, intro to American government, and Congress and the legislative process.
He worked to internationalize the university, creating stronger ties to Mexico and Latin America more broadly as a Fulbright Scholar, an exchange professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónima de México, and a study abroad director in Costa Rica, Mexico and Spain.
In 2006, he helped to establish the Fred Harris Congressional Internship at UNM. Administered by the Political Science Department, this program provides UNM students from all disciplines and political parties with life-changing semester-length internships in the nation’s capital. Since its inception, almost 160 students have served as interns in the offices of New Mexico senators and representatives.
Students gain valuable experience in democracy through applied work in a policy- and representation-focused curriculum that integrates theory and practice in real time, experience they employ after college here in New Mexico and across the U.S.
In the last year, we worked with Fred to build funding for the internship. He and his family started the Fred R. Harris Congressional Internship Fund Endowment to enable all students to live in D.C. and participate in the program, regardless of their financial capacity.
Fred once told us that he never wanted a building or other infrastructure to be named after him. Instead, his legacy will carry on in an internship and a fund that makes participating in it possible. He said, young people need “to engage the institutions that govern their lives.”
Jami Nuñez is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of New Mexico. Tim Krebs is a professor at UNM’s Department of Political Science.
