The Black Studies Program at the University at Buffalo was established in 1969, a time that one of its founders, Jim Pappas, describes as "a heady and exciting time - a time that illustrated the best and the worst of academic life." The program evolved into the Department of African American Studies in 1973 as perhaps the first truly interdisciplinary academic field of study at UB, and will celebrate its 30th anniversary in the 1999-2000 academic year.