Schar School of Policy and Government
Schar School Logo
Former name
George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs
MottoA Dynamic Education for an Evolving World
TypePublic policy school
Established1990 [note 1]
Parent institution
George Mason University
Accreditation
Academic affiliation
TPC
Budget$18 million
DeanMark J. Rozell
Academic staff
80
Students2,000
Location
Arlington
,
Virginia
,
U.S.

38°53′05″N 77°06′03″W / 38.884622°N 77.100731°W / 38.884622; -77.100731
CampusUrban (Arlington)
Suburban (Fairfax)
Websiteschar.gmu.edu
Schar School of Policy and Government is located in District of Columbia
Schar School of Policy and Government
Location of the Virginia Square campus in the Washington, D.C., area

The Schar School of Policy and Government - SSPG (formerly the George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs - SPGIA), is the public policy school of George Mason University, a public research university in the Commonwealth of Virginia near Washington, D.C. Established as Northern Virginia's first public policy school with locations in Arlington and Fairfax County, the school's political science curriculum has a professional education and applied emphasis on public administration and national security at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, in addition to a traditional liberal arts education, while also maintaining an active role within all five major subfields of political science known as political philosophy, political methodology, comparative politics, international relations, public policy and public administration.[1][2]

The Schar School is accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration[3] and is a member of the Transatlantic Policy Consortium for its education programs in public policy and public administration; for its education programs in international relations it is accredited by the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) .[4] It receives approximately $2 million in sponsored funding for academic research annually.[5] The school's budget was $18 million for the 2019–2020 academic year.[6]

History

The public policy section of the school was founded as a think tank/public policy research institute in 1990 and evolved into a graduate-only School of Public Policy in 2000; while the generalist political science and international affairs section was founded in 1990 as the Department of Public and International Affairs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In August 2014 the School of Public Policy began providing public policy and public administration education at the undergraduate level, then merged with the Undergraduate and Graduate Department of Public and International Affairs (then a department of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’) to form the George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs.[7] The modern Schar School of Policy and Government was created by the merger of the former public policy graduate school and the undergraduate and graduate level political science and international affairs faculty of the American liberal arts college-type college of arts and sciences into a unified autonomous research-intensive constituent college public policy school offering both undergraduate education and graduate education in public policy, public administration, international affairs, and other political science subfields - even into undergraduate programs that combine all of the aforementioned sub-fields of political science to broaden the range of skill attainment afforded to undergraduate students and graduate degrees with a specialized focus for those desiring to gain advanced-level subject matter expertise in a specific focus area.

In May 2016, the school was renamed the Schar School of Policy and Government in recognition of a $10 million gift from businessman and philanthropist Dwight Schar.[8]

In 2016, the Schar School announced it would partner with The Washington Post to conduct political polling. The Washington Post-Schar School polls correctly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win Virginia in the 2016 presidential race, Democrat Doug Jones would win Alabama's 2017 senatorial race, and Democrat Ralph Northam would win Virginia's 2017 gubernatorial election.[9]

As a byproduct of George Mason University developing out of the University of Virginia, one of the oldest universities in the United States, the Schar School inherited the names of some of its programs, referring to courses of study in politics as government degrees rather than the more contemporary term political science, generally adopted by programs established from the 1960s onward.[10]

Campus

Schar School Headquarters at Van Metre Hall in Arlington, Virginia

The school's primary campus is in the Virginia Square neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, with the headquarters in Van Metre Hall; roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Washington, D.C. Undergraduate programs offered by the school are primarily held at the university's flagship campus in Fairfax, Virginia, with night school offerings in both Arlington and Fairfax. In 2013, political scientist Mark J. Rozell became Acting Dean, taking over the role in a permanent capacity in 2016.[11] During his tenure the school has averaged 80 faculty and a student body of approximately 2,000.[5] The school completed the 244,000 sq ft academic headquarters, Van Metre Hall, in 2010.[12] In 2020 the school began a $250 million expansion directly adjacent, as part of the Commonwealth of Virginia's bid to locate Amazon HQ2 in the nearby National Landing neighborhood.[13][14][15]

The headquarters of the Schar School and most of its non-traditional student and graduate programs are located in Arlington, Virginia; while most traditional student undergraduate program take place approximately 15 miles away at the university's main campus in Fairfax County near the City of Fairfax. The 5.2-acre campus is in the Virginia Square neighborhood which has a highly educated (86% with bachelor's degrees or higher) and affluent (median household income of $112,000) population.[16] The Arlington campus was once the site of the now-defunct Kann's Department Store, and the property was acquired as the location for the university's law school by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1979.[17]

The Arlington campus consists of a 256,000-square-foot academic building with a 300-seat auditorium, a 5,600-square-foot multipurpose room, a library and an outdoor public plaza. As part of its successful bid to bring Amazon's HQ2 to Virginia, the state committed up to $125 million over the next 20 years to expand the Arlington campus with an emphasis on research and technology.[18]

Academics

Education and research

The school offers bachelor's as well as graduate degrees in political science along with specialized education through graduate certificates, master's, and doctoral degree programs. It also provides executive education programs.[1]

Think tanks, polling, and specialized coursework

While it primarily educates and conducts research in subjects related to politics, government, international relations, public policy, public administration, international security - national security, security studies, intelligence studies, intelligence analysis -, urban studies-urban policy, public policy-related economics, biodefense, international commerce, homeland security, emergency management, counterterrorism, illicit trade analysis, organization development, knowledge management, transportation policy, nonprofit management, operations management, logistics and supply chain management, administrative law, constitutional law, international law, national security law, energy, infrastructure, and environmental studies as well as the study of regional issues affecting the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, it is home to several prominent centers, research institutes, and think tanks. These units include the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, the Center for Security Policy Studies, Center for Transportation Public-Private Partnership Policy, Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise,[19] the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), and the Center for Energy Science and Policy.[20] The School of Policy and Government also cooperates with the Antonin Scalia Law School's National Security Institute in conducting research around legal issues pertaining to national security and with the Donald G. Costello College of Business' Center for Government Contracting on issues related to government procurement and business-to-government relations.[21] The school is also the psephology partner of The Washington Post, collaborating on electoral polling and analysis for the paper since 2016, the two hold an A+ rating for historical accuracy and methodology in polling from FiveThirtyEight.[22][23]

Degrees

The Schar School, with a professional development and applied (praxis) emphasis on public administration and national security education in addition to a traditional liberal arts education, offers students doctorate (PhD), master's, graduate certificate, bachelor's, and academic minors' programs covering all five major sub-fields of political science such as political philosophy, political methodology, comparative politics, international relations, as well as public policy and public administration. The degree programs are as follows:[24][25][26][27][2]

Biodefense program

The Schar School's biodefense degree program was the first the United States, led by Ken Alibek and Sergei Popov, senior Soviet bioweaponeers who defected to the U.S. in 1992, and Charles Bailey, former biodefense scientist at USAMRIID, Fort Detrick, Maryland.[28] Credited with creating and weaponizing the most virulent and deadly strain of anthrax ever synthesized while leading the Soviet biological warfare agency Biopreparat, Alibek joined the faculty at George Mason in the late 1990s, spearheading the biodefense program's creation in 2003.[28] Popov, a scientist at the VECTOR Institute who created a highly virulent and deadly strain of the plague bacterium by splicing into it the gene for the diphtheria toxin, first defected to the United Kingdom before later coming to the US and joining Alibek at Mason.[29] Alibek subsequently served as distinguished professor of medical microbiology, as well as the director of the Center for Biodefense.[30][31] He also developed the plans for the university's biosafety level three (BSL-3) research facility, securing federal and state homeland security grants for its construction.[32] Alibek left the school in the late 2000s, while Popov remained on the faculty into the mid-2010s, leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-funded National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Disease.[33]

In 2011, members of the Mason biodefense program worked with the Russian department at Cornell University and the Carnegie Corporation to produce The Anthrax Diaries, a documentary on the Soviet bioweapons program and the scientists involved.[34]

The program continues to receive federal support and as of August 2023 is led by Gregory Koblentz.[35][36]

Interdisciplinary programs

In addition to courses and degree programs solely administered by the Schar School of Policy and Government, the public policy school also partners with other constituent colleges and academic departments to offer interdisciplinary degrees. The academic concentration in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) is jointly run with the College of Humanities and Social Science's Department of Economics and Department of Philosophy.[37] The Political Communication minor is co-administered with the Department of Communication.[38] Government Analytics minor is co-taught by the College of Science's Department of Computational and Data Science.[39][40] The interdisciplinary Global Affairs (global studies) bachelor's and master's program is administered by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences but contains a considerably large concentration of courses from the School of Policy and Government among other academic departments.[41][42] Although intelligence studies within the international security master's program[43] at the graduate level are administered directly by the public policy school, undergraduate level Intelligence Analysis and Intelligence Studies minors are administered by the Department of Criminology, Law and Society with a cross-disciplinary course load in addition taken from international affairs, sociology, anthropology, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution (peace and conflict studies), and the College of Science's Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science's geospatial intelligence program. An undergraduate minor in Criminology, Law and Society is offered in cooperation with the College of Humanities and Social Science's Department of Criminology, Law and Society; which share some common subject mater and cross-listed courses.[44][45][46] The public policy school also has a joint program with the Antonin Scalia Law School where a person can receive a dual Juris Doctor (JD)-Master’s of Public Policy (MPP) degree.[47] The School of Policy and Government also operates the Center for Energy Science and Policy in partnership with the College of Science and the School of Business.[20]

Relationship with the intelligence community

George Mason University’s public policy school and political science department known as the Schar School of Policy and Government, received some controversy with its relationship with former intelligence agency personnel of the United States Intelligence Community, in particular the 2009 hiring of General Michael Hayden, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence - Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the hiring of Robert Deitz, former General Counsel of the NSA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Senior Counsel to the Director of the CIA, and the Deputy General Counsel for Intelligence at the U.S. Department of Defense due to their alleged role in mass surveillance including the NSA warrantless surveillance programs of 2001-2007 and other similar ethical criticisms.[48] [49]

Former intelligence officers Michael Haden, Robert Deitz, and Larry Pfeiffer - the latter of whom was former Chief of Staff of the CIA - founded the university-affiliated Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security while working at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. The center has a secretive undisclosed board of advisors composed of non-academic "intelligence, national security, legal, corporate, and international security" communities who guide strategy.[50]

References

  1. 1 2 "Prospective Students | Schar School of Policy and Government". schar.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  2. 1 2 Andres, G. J., & Beecher, J. A. (1989). Applied Political Science: Bridging the Gap or a Bridge Too Far? PS: Political Science and Politics, 22(3), 636–639. https://doi.org/10.2307/419633
  3. ↑ "List of NASPAA Members | NASPAA". www.naspaa.org. Retrieved 2021-06-09.
  4. ↑ "APSIA Affiliate - George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs". Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA). 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  5. 1 2 "Schar School of Policy and Government < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  6. ↑ "GMU 2020 Budget Executive Summary" (PDF). George Mason University. 2019.
  7. ↑ "Schar School of Policy and Government |". Spgia.gmu.edu. 2019-09-13. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  8. ↑ "George Mason U. lands another gift from a politically connected donor". Washington Post. Retrieved Sep 18, 2019.
  9. ↑ Adcox, Abigail (Nov 5, 2018). "The Washington Post and Schar School Partner to Conduct Polls | Fourth Estate". gmufourthestate.com. Retrieved Sep 18, 2019.
  10. ↑ DiSalvo, Daniel (2013-04-01). "The Politics of Studying Politics: Political Science Since the 1960s". Society. 50 (2): 132–139. doi:10.1007/s12115-013-9631-7. ISSN 1936-4725. S2CID 255514132.
  11. ↑ "Mark J. Rozell | Schar School of Policy and Government". schar.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  12. ↑ "George Mason University Arlington Campus - Phase II - AED - Arlington Economic Development". www.arlingtoneconomicdevelopment.com. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  13. ↑ "Arlington Forward | George Mason". www2.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  14. ↑ "Firms learn about plans for expansion of Arlington Campus | George Mason". www2.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  15. ↑ "Mason launches Institute for Digital InnovAtion | George Mason". www2.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  16. ↑ "Virginia Square - AED - Arlington Economic Development". www.arlingtoneconomicdevelopment.com. Retrieved Sep 18, 2019.
  17. ↑ Markon, Jerry (Nov 15, 2007). "GMU Prepares For a Farewell To an Original". Retrieved Sep 18, 2019 – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  18. ↑ "For universities in Virginia, Amazon's HQ2 came at the perfect moment". Washington Post. Retrieved Sep 18, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise". nonprofitcenter.schar.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  20. 1 2 "About – The Center for Energy Science & Policy (CESP)". cesp.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
  21. ↑ "Center for Government Contracting | George Mason University". www.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  22. ↑ Adcox, Abigail (2018-11-05). "The Washington Post and Schar School Partner to Conduct Polls". The Fourth Estate.
  23. ↑ Silver, Nate (2021-03-25). "Pollster Ratings". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  24. ↑ "Programs of Study | Schar School of Policy and Government". Schar.gmu.edu. 2019-09-13. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  25. ↑ "Find Your Program < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  26. ↑ "BA in International Security and Law". Schar School of Policy and Government. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  27. ↑ "Transportation Policy, Operations, and Logistics, MA < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-31.
  28. 1 2 "University Launches Biodefense Graduate Programs - The Mason Spirit -- George Mason University". spirit.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
  29. ↑ "Interviews With Biowarriors: Sergei Popov", (2001) NOVA Online.
  30. ↑ Jacobsen, Op. cit., pg 293.
  31. ↑ Alibek, Ken (March 31, 2003). "War in Iraq: Weapons of Mass Destruction". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  32. ↑ Anderson (2006), Op. cit.
  33. ↑ Dodson, Allen (April 2, 2010). "Soviet Bioweapon Researchers Discuss Past, Future". Federation Of American Scientists. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  34. ↑ "The Anthrax Diaries: An Anthropology of Biological Warfare". Cornell University. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  35. ↑ McClain, Buzz (December 5, 2018). "Biodefense Leader Kadlec Praises Schar School Program at 15th Anniversary Lecture". Schar School of Policy and Government. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  36. ↑ "Gregory Koblentz". Schar School of Policy and Government. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
  37. ↑ "PPE at Mason". Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  38. ↑ "Political Communication Minor (Schar) < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  39. ↑ "Government Analytics Minor (Schar) < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  40. ↑ "Government Analytics Minor (COS) < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  41. ↑ "Global Affairs, BA < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  42. ↑ "Global Affairs, MA < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  43. ↑ "Master's in International Security". Schar School of Policy and Government. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  44. ↑ "Criminology, Law and Society | Programs: Minor in Intelligence Studies". Criminology, Law and Society. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  45. ↑ "Intelligence Analysis Minor < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  46. ↑ "Intelligence Studies Minor < George Mason University". catalog.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  47. ↑ "StackPath".
  48. ↑ Silverstein, Ken (December 12, 2014). "Irony 101: Study Ethics with Legal Ace Who Sanctioned NSA Wiretapping, CIA Torture". The Intercept. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  49. ↑ "Faculty Advisory Committee". Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  50. ↑ "About". Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
  1. ↑ Establishment, Merger, and Renaming Timeline: 1990 (public policy research institute / think tank) --> 1990 (undergraduate and graduate Department of Public and International Affairs) --> 2000 (graduate section of the School of Public Policy) --> 2014 (undergraduate section of the School of Public Policy) --> 2014 (merger of the School of Public Policy and the Department of Public and International Affairs into the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs) --> 2016 (renamed to the Schar School of Policy and Government).
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