Schar School of Policy and Government

Schar School of Policy and Government

Schar School Logo
Former name	School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs
Motto	A Dynamic Education for an Evolving World
Type	Public
Established	2000
Parent institution	George Mason University
Accreditation	SACSCOC (university) NASPAA (college)
Budget	$18 million
Dean	Mark J. Rozell
Academic staff	80
Students	2,000
Address	3351 Fairfax Drive , Arlington , Virginia , 22201 , U.S. 38°53′05″N 77°06′03″W / 38.884622°N 77.100731°W / 38.884622; -77.100731Coordinates: 38°53′05″N 77°06′03″W / 38.884622°N 77.100731°W / 38.884622; -77.100731
Campus	Urban (Arlington) Suburban (Fairfax)
Website	Schar School website
Location in District of Columbia

The Schar School of Policy and Government is a constituent college of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. Established in 2000 as Northern Virginia's premier public policy school, the school offers undergraduate degrees in international relations, public policy, public administration, and international security, along with master's and doctoral programs of study, to include specialized fields of study in biodefense and international commerce, as well as executive education programs.^[1] While it primarily educates and conducts research in subjects related to politics, government, international affairs, and economics, as well as study of regional issues affecting the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, the school is home to several prominent centers and institutes, including the Michael V. Hayden Center and the Center for Security Policy Studies. The school is also the election research partner of The Washington Post, playing a significant role in electoral polling and election coverage for the paper since 2016.^[2]

The School's primary campus is in the Virginia Square neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, with the headquarters in Van Metre Hall. 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.^[3] During his tenure the school has averaged 80 faculty and a student body of approximately 2,000.^[4] The school completed the 244,000 sq ft academic headquarters, Van Metre Hall, in 2010.^[5] 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.^[6][7][8] The Schar School is accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration,^[9] and is an affiliate member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), a global consortium of prominent schools of international affairs.^[10] As part of George Mason University, the school is a Very High Research Activity (R1) academic unit in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. It receives approximately $2 million in sponsored funding for academic research annually.^[4] The School's budget was $18 million for the 2019–2020 academic year.^[11]

History[]

The Schar School was founded as an institute in 1990 and evolved to become the graduate-level School of Public Policy in 2000. In August 2014, it merged with the Department of Public and International Affairs to form the George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs.^[12]

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.^[13]

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.^[14]

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.^[15]

Schar School Headquarters at Van Metre Hall in Arlington, Virginia

Campus[]

The Schar School is located in Arlington, Virginia approximately 15 miles away from the university's main campus in 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[]

Faculty[]

In early 2020 Saskia Popescu became the first infectious disease epidemiologist to join the school amid the COVID-19 pandemic.^[19]

In September 2019, Michael Morell, former acting Director of the CIA, joined the Schar School as Distinguished Visiting Professor.^[20]

In August 2019 Andrew McCabe, former acting Director of the FBI, announced he was joining the faculty as a Distinguished Visiting Professor.^[21]

In March 2018 Terry McAuliffe, former Governor of Virginia, was named a visiting professor at the Schar School, teaching and delivering guest lectures.^[22][23] He since went on leave while campaigning as a candidate for the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election.

In 2014 director of the White House Situation Room during the Obama Administration, and prior Chief of Staff of the CIA, joined the Schar School.

In 2009 Michael Hayden and Robert Deitz joined the school together as permanent members of the faculty.^[24][25] The former, a previous director of both the CIA and NSA, and the latter serving as chief lawyer at both during the same period, their appointment elicited some criticism for the pair's alleged role in mass surveillance, extraordinary rendition, and enhanced interrogation.^[25] Hayden later led the creation of the Michael V. Hayden Center within the school, with Deitz serving as a board member.

In the 1990s Ken Alibek and Sergei Popov, former senior Soviet biological warfare scientists, joined the school, subsequently spearheading the creation of its biodefense program.^[26]

Degrees[]

The Schar School offers students PhD, master's, bachelor's, and graduate certificate programs.^[27]

The PhD Program includes doctorates in biodefense, political science, and public policy. The master's degree programs include biodefense, international commerce and policy, international security, organization development and knowledge management, political science, public administration, public policy, and transportation policy, operations, and logistics. Graduate certificate programs are offered in biodefense, emergency management and homeland security, global health and security, national security and public policy, nonprofit management, public management, science, technology, and security, and terrorism and homeland security. ^[28]

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.^[29] 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 90's, spearheading the biodefense program's creation in 2003.^[29] 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.^[30] Alibek subsequently served as Distinguished Professor of Medical Microbiology, as well as the Director of the Center for Biodefense.^[31][32] 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.^[33] 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.^[34]

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.^[35]

The program continues to receive federal support, and is currently led by .^[36]

Undergraduate education[]

Two undergraduate degree programs are offered, a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Politics and a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration. ^[37]

References[]