Schar School of Policy and Government

With thousands of people and countless opportunities, there’s a lot to take in at Virginia’s largest public research university. To help George Mason University students find community and boost their on-campus experience, Housing and Residence Life created Learning Communities (LC), where students with common interests live and learn together during the academic year.

Democracy Lab is one of the newest LCs. More than 60 freshmen from the Schar School of Policy and Government are enrolled for its inaugural year.

To mark the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, we reached out to our colleagues at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security and the Schar School of Policy and Government for their remembrances. Many of them have worked in the intelligence and policy communities and each has a unique perspective on a day that changed our world.

Distinguished Visiting Professor Michael Morell is the only person who was with President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001, when the 9/11 attacks occurred, and with President Barack Obama on May 2, 2011, when Osama bin Laden was killed.

Mason's Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a nationally recognized expert on the U.S.-Mexico border, has a slightly different view of the border region than we generally see on television news. She talks about the wonders and the dangers of the region, her research into border security, social movements and human trafficking.

Natalia Kanos and Veronica Mata met as they searched for roommates prior to starting as freshmen at George Mason University. Now they are leading Student Government.

As the government in Afghanistan collapsed and the Taliban seized power on the heels of the American exit from the country, Ellen Laipson, former vice chair of the U.S. National Intelligence Council and director of the international security program at the Schar School of Policy and Government, gave her assessment of the situation in an opinion piece for Asia Times.

Cynthia Lum and John S. Earle have been named George Mason University Professors. Their status was approved by a resolution of Mason’s Board of Visitors in July.

A drone that autonomously attacked soldiers during a civil conflict in Libya last year raises concerns about the global use and spread of such weapons, said Zak Kallenborn, a Policy Fellow at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.

George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government will launch its new Race, Politics, and Policy Center in Fall 2021 under the leadership of Professor Michael Fauntroy. Fauntroy, who taught at Mason for 11 years before joining the faculty at Howard University in 2013, returned to Mason in June.

A Schar School adjunct professor brings a career full of experience and expertise to the security studies classroom.