In mid-October, Joseph Amato, Dean of the Center for Rural and Regional Studies, traveled to the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He gave a guest lecture and spoke with all members of the university's history program. He also met with Glenn Conrad and Carl Brasseaux, Directors of the Center for Louisiana Studies. Drawing on numerous parallels between historical and contemporary influences in southwest Louisiana and southwest Minnesota, Amato and the directors initiated a discussion of possible exchanges of students and faculty between their two centers.