Shortly after he was introduced as Union’s 19th president, David R. Harris met with local media.
“How do you feel about being the first African American selected to lead Union College,” a reporter asked on that historic day in February 2018.
Harris anticipated the question would come up at some point, but didn’t expect it to be the first. He thought the media would initially focus on his ideas as president, not his skin color.
For his upcoming talk, Harris has been looking through Union’s archives and picking the brain of experts like Denis Brennan, a retired lecturer in the History Department who taught a class on Union College history.
“Wherever I go, I am Black, so to me, it is not the same as it is to other people,” he said. “I appreciate it, though, when I walk around Memorial Chapel. I see the portraits of all the presidents, and I see all white men, and I think about someday my portrait being there and how that will look very different.”
As he recalled that moment nearly seven years ago, Harris began to contemplate the history of African Americans at Union.
“This place wasn’t created for people like me,” Harris said. “What were the previous 200 years like that led up to that day in 2018?”
Harris will share his thoughts as the featured speaker at Founders Day on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 1 p.m. in Memorial Chapel. The event commemorates the 230th anniversary of the granting of Union’s charter by the state Board of Regents in 1795, regarded as one of the first public calls for higher education.
The event is free and open to the campus community and the public.
Historically, Founders Day touches on some aspect of Union’s history, so Harris’s background is well-suited for his topic. A sociologist by training, Harris has focused his scholarship on race and ethnicity. Since becoming president of Union, he has made a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion a focal point.
After George Floyd was murdered in 2020, he shared his own experiences as an African American and created the Presidential Initiative on Race, Power and Privilege.
For his upcoming talk, Harris has been looking through Union’s archives and picking the brain of experts like Denis Brennan, a retired lecturer in the History Department who taught a class on Union College history.
“Who was the first Black student? What’s their story,” Harris said. “Who was the first Black faculty member? What’s their story? It’s a history most people don’t know. We know in 1970 women came to Union. When did African Americans? We shouldn’t lose sight of our history.”
This will be the final Founders Day as president for Harris. In September, he announced he would be stepping down at the end of the academic year in part, because after seven years, it was the “right time to pass the baton.”
He recently sat for his presidential portrait that will eventually join the 18 others in Memorial Chapel. He continues to reflect on that day when the campus community met the College’s first Black president. Aware of its historic significance, some in the audience had tears in their eyes.
“I was surprised at how my race impacted others because it’s not new to me,” Harris said. “I was the first Black kid in my Little League. I’m regularly in rooms where I’m the only person who can’t see a Black person. I get it. But I’m really interested in all the history at Union that led up to that day.”
Also at Founders Day, the College will present the Gideon Hawley Teacher Recognition Award. Named for the 1809 graduate of Union who was New York state’s first superintendent of public education, the award is given to secondary school teachers who have had a continuing influence on the academic life of Union students.