Schar School of Policy and Government

The Schar School of Policy and Government (SSPG), formerly known as the George Mason University School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs (SPGIA), is the public policy school of George Mason University headquartered in Arlington, Virginia roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Washington, D.C., with a satellite campus in suburban Fairfax County, Virginia. Established as Northern Virginia's first public policy school, the constituent college offers bachelor's-level undergraduate as well as postgraduate degrees in political science and its specific sub-fields such as international relations, public policy, public administration, international security (national security, security studies, intelligence studies, intelligence analysis), and urban studies along with specialized postgraduate education through graduate certificates, master's, and doctoral degree programs in fields such as biodefense, international commerce, homeland security, emergency management, counterterrorism, illicit trade analysis, organization development, and knowledge management as well as executive education programs with students eventually choosing one or two degree programs to join, but having the option of taking elective courses from across several sub-fields at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.[1] While it primarily educates and conducts research in subjects related to politics, government, international affairs, and public policy-related economics, as well as the study of regional issues affecting the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, the school is home to several prominent centers, research institutes, think tanks, and courses within many of its educational programs dealing with security studies, counterterrorism, transportation policy, nonprofit management-nonprofit studies, operations management, logistics-supply chain management, administrative law, energy, infrastructure, and the environment (environmental science and environmental studies) including 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,[2] the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), and the Center for Energy Science and Policy;[3] 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. 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.[4][5]

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
TypeConstituent college and
Public policy school of undergraduate and post-graduate education
Established1990 (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)
Parent institution
George Mason University
Accreditation
Budget$18 million
DeanMark J. Rozell
Academic staff
80
Students2,000
Address
3351 Fairfax Drive
,
Arlington
,
Virginia
,
22201
,
U.S.

38.884622°N 77.100731°W / 38.884622; -77.100731
CampusUrban (Arlington)
Suburban (Fairfax)
WebsiteSchar School website
Schar School of Policy and Government is located in District of Columbia
Schar School of Policy and Government
Location in District of Columbia

The Schar School is accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration[6] and the Transatlantic Policy Consortium for its education programs in public policy and public administration, as well as by the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) for its education programs in international relations.[7] As part of George Mason University, the school is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and 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.[8] The school's budget was $18 million for the 2019–2020 academic year.[9]

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.[10] Thus, 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.[11]

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.[12]

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.[13]

Schar School Headquarters at Van Metre Hall in Arlington, Virginia

Campus

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.[14] During his tenure the school has averaged 80 faculty and a student body of approximately 2,000.[8] The school completed the 244,000 sq ft academic headquarters, Van Metre Hall, in 2010.[15] 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.[16][17][18]

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.[19] 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.[20]

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.[21]

Academics

Faculty

In early 2020 Saskia Popescu became the first infectious disease epidemiologist to join the school amid the COVID-19 pandemic.[22]

In September 2019, Michael Morell, former acting Director of the CIA, joined the Schar School as distinguished visiting professor.[23]

In August 2019 Andrew McCabe, former acting director of the FBI, announced he was joining the faculty as a distinguished visiting professor.[24]

In March 2018 Terry McAuliffe, former Governor of Virginia, was named a visiting professor at the Schar School, teaching and delivering guest lectures.[25][26] He since went on leave while campaigning as a candidate for the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election.

In 2014 Larry Pfeiffer 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.[27][28] 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.[28] Hayden later led the creation of the Michael V. Hayden Center within the school, with Deitz serving as a board member.

Robert Deitz, Former general counsel to the director of the CIA, NSA, and NGA.[29]

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.[30]

Ellen Laipson, Former CEO of The Stimson Center and former Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council that reports to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence[29]

Gregory Koblentz, International Weapons of Mass Destruction expert.[29]

Colin Dueck, Foreign policy fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.[29]

Michael Hunzeker, Assistant director of the George Mason University Center for Security Policy Studies.[29]

Ming Wan, Associate dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government, and professor of East Asian political economy.[29]

Stuart Malawer, Professor of law and national security.[29]

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Professor of comparative politics and US–Mexico policy.[29]

Jeremy Mayer, Former State Department instructor and professor of government.[29]

James Pfiffner, Professor emeritus of American government.[29]

D Matthew Scherer, Professor of political theory and Constitutional law.[29]

Bonnie Stabile, Professor of public policy, gender and health policy.[29]

David Priess, Senior Fellow and former presidential daily briefer at the CIA.

Louise Shelley, director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC).

Degrees

The Schar School offers students doctorate (PhD), master's, graduate certificate, bachelor's, and academic minors' programs [31][32][33][34] such as:

Graduate education

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. [35]

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.[36] 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.[36] 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.[37] Alibek subsequently served as distinguished professor of medical microbiology, as well as the director of the Center for Biodefense.[38][39] 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.[40] 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.[41]

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.[42]

The program continues to receive federal support and is currently led by Gregory Koblentz.[43]

Bachelor's degrees and academic concentrations

Three undergraduate bachelor's degree programs are offered, a Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Politics, a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Security and Law.[44][33] The Bachelor of Arts in Government and International Politics consists of specialized academic concentrations in Public Policy and Administration, International Relations, Political Analysis, International Political Economy, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Comparative Politics, American Institutions and Processes, and Law, Philosophy, and Governance.[45] The Bachelor of Science in Public Administration consists of specialized academic concentrations in Administration and Management, Economic Policy Analysis, International Political Economy, Nonprofit Management, Public Policy, U.S. Government Institutions, and an Individualized Concentration.[46]

Academic minors

The School of Policy and Government also offers undergraduate academic minors that can be taken along with a bachelor's academic major in any field. The minors offered are: Urban and Suburban Studies, Public Policy and Management, Political Philosophy, Legal Studies, International Security, International and Comparative Studies, Global Systems, Government Analytics, and American Government.[47]

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.[48] The Political Communication minor is co-administered with the Department of Communication.[49] Government Analytics minor is co-taught by the College of Science's Department of Computational and Data Science.[50][51] 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.[52][53] Although intelligence studies within the international security master's program[54] 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.[55][56][57] 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.[58] 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.[3]

Top Employers and Industries

 


[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67] [68] [69]


References
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  3. "About – The Center for Energy Science & Policy (CESP)". cesp.gmu.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
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