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Zimmerman Library has become more of a haven for students who love politics, as a former senator has donated a slew of congressional papers to the facility.
Former U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman donated 1,100 boxes of congressional papers from his 30-year senatorial career to UNM.
The University celebrated the donation of the papers, which are now housed in Zimmerman’s basement, on Thursday afternoon.
Bingaman said he chose to donate the papers to Zimmerman because he trusts UNM’s archiving processes.
“I think there’s a history here at Zimmerman of archiving and maintaining this type of political record,” he said. “I’m very appreciative that the University of New Mexico is willing to do this. For my perspective, the papers would be well taken care of and would be made available to anybody.”
Bingaman, a long-time New Mexico congressman, served in the U.S. Senate from 1983 to 2012. He was a member of numerous committees, such as the Senate Committee on Armed Forces, the Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
The donation will make the library more beneficial for scholars, Bingaman said. He said he invites the University community to take a look at the papers whenever they need to.
“These papers that UNM is going to be in charge of maintaining would provide the opportunity for people to research what we did,” he said. “Then they can make their own judgments about it.”
Before the ceremony on Thursday, Bingaman met with some UNM scholars to discuss energy research the University is conducting.
Bingaman also toured Zimmerman’s basement with UNM President Robert Frank and Western New Mexico University President Joseph Shepard.
The donation amounts to about one million congressional papers, Frank said. He said it took University archivists almost a year to organize the papers, and that the papers would be very beneficial for students at the University.
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“Students who are interested in how political decisions get made could come and see how a senator actually works in a Senate office,” he said. “It will be very educational to political science and law students, and to students who are interested in energy and health issues.”
The papers will become accessible through UNM’s electronic database by next year, Frank said.
Frank said he worked in Bingaman’s office as part of a fellowship “when the senator was quite a young man.” He said the papers reflect the senator’s broad career in areas including energy, health care and military affairs.
Frank said the donation would enhance the University’s reputation as an academic institution and make UNM degrees more valuable.
“We want to be the repository for things that make a difference in a national level,” he said. “We now hold the papers of one of our most critical U.S. senators. That makes us the stopping point for national discourse. It puts UNM on the map.”
