Associate Professor of Political Science

Director, Pre-Law Advisement Program

Dr. Peter J. Baxter joined the Niagara University family 1990 and has served as the Chair of the Department of Political Science from 1999 to 2005.  Teaching primarily in the areas of law and jurisprudence and comparative politics, Baxter says that greatest joy are the students and alumni that have graced the halls of classrooms across Niagara's campus.

Anyone who knows Baxter knows he is a proud Scottish-American and proud of the area of his birth, the Catskills and Hudson Valley.  A first generation college graduate, Dr. Baxter likes to work with students of differing academic abilities.  As he puts it, "there are only two types of people on Earth -- the ignorant and the stupid.  And since we are in college to clear up our respective ignorance, if we do not choose the tools a college provides and the time it provides in our lives to work on our ignorance, we are nothing but stupid."

His long academic career at the University at Buffalo taught him much.  "Large institutions do well what they set out to do.   But a smaller sized institution of higher learning like Niagara allow the student and professor alike to understand the whole person."  Learning must be a cooperative venture.  And there is not much cooperative learning when you are a number.

He fondly remembers the professors who taught him well through his undergraduate, graduate and law school experiences.  Dr. Claude E. Welch and Dr. Frederic Fleron (both of UB) have always been role models for Dr. Baxter since they both kindled the learning spirit in him and were always incredibly respectful of their students.  "I remember the wonderful lectures by Dr. Welch and the seminars led by Dr. Fleron -- their love of knowledge is so evident in all they do that one can not help but be turned on by the pursuit of further knowledge.  They both truly opened the world of possibilities to me."  During his graduate/law school years Dr. Baxter was a Baldy scholar for the study of law and social policy.

Graduating from the University at Buffalo School of Law in 1988, receiving his juris doctorate and later completing his PhD in 1990 from UB, Dr. Baxter has sought ways through his research and teaching to fuse the worlds of law and political science.  As both the Chair of Political Science and Pre-Law Advisor for the entire Niagara community, Dr. Baxter wants to challenge his students to higher forms of learning and to becoming a true advocate for the disenfranchised and disabled in our society.

In the mid-1980s then graduate student Baxter took courses at the Sorbonne in Paris and taught at both the Université de Nanterre and Lycée Carnot in Paris.  Dr. Baxter has kept up with his "French Connection" and his best friend Thierry Berthet of the Université de Bordeaux spending his sabbatical leave pursuing research with his French colleagues and offering a lecture series to a graduate course at Bordeaux.  His love of African politics has never faded yet an equal love of analyzing the juridical system of the United States turns his academic work into a love affair.

He would like to salute all of the graduating classes of Niagara that have passed through a course or two taught by Dr. Baxter.  As he puts it, "you take one course from me and you become part of my family."