Beginning of Border Research Institute

Beginning of Border Research Institute

Interdisciplinary approach in education

Dr. Guy Poitras discussing the beginning of the Border Research Institute.

Special Collections and Archives, Coates Library, Trinity University

August 25th, 2023

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MP3

English

1980's

Lee Denney

Guy Poitras

Coates Library at Trinity University

Yeah, it was in the late 1970s. Seventy-eight, seventy-seven, seventy-eight. At that time, we had what they called division councils. That is, a dean, there’d be a dean and several departments would be grouped into this division. There were three or four divisions on campus. So, the vision—I think it was called Social and Behavioral Sciences. It started there. Now, as I might have mentioned to you in my email, I had nothing to do with creating it. But it came out of the division council. I cannot remember for the life of me who in that division pushed this. But we got the support of the dean. And so, we got—we set it up. I didn't even invent the name Border Research Institute. But at some point, in the division council, the person who advocated it didn't show any interest in running it. He didn't have any administrative interest in it. So, you know, I was fairly young, foolish. I said, “Well, I'll do it. I'll try.” So, I became the director of the Border Research Institute. No significant money from administration. This was, again, one of those things that you do it because you're interested, not because you're going to get a big, fat, cushy operation going on. It wasn't like that.