The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has contributed to an increase in higher education collaboration between México and the US, especially on the border. The increase in collaboration led to literature focused on the challenges, impact, need, and prospects of collaboration. However, until 2001, no known study had been conducted to discover whether there a set of personal and institutional characteristics facilitate collaboration. The purpose of the study then was to explore such characteristics. In order to first explore these characteristics, the views of U. S. border academics were obtained. The views of U. S. border academics were collected through the use of a questionnaire with items drawn from research regarding higher education collaboration and other related research. The results of the study verified the existence of a set of personal and organizational characteristics which can be summarized as commitment and cross-cultural competence. Some recommendations based on the study's results conclude the paper.