Steven Pearlstein

Just a Typical Tuesday: 8 Speakers, 3 Events

Melanie Balog — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 19:56:33 +0000

Just a Typical Tuesday: 8 Speakers, 3 Events Melanie Balog Wed, 09/21/2022 - 15:56

The day began with a morning talk with a U.S. senator discussing details of the upcoming midterm elections and ended in the evening with a top executive of the world’s second-largest retail company explaining the intricacies of his job. In between, a panel including two former White House appointees tackled the thorny topic of the handling of classified information. Just a typical day at the Schar School.

Cassidy (l) and Pearlstein. Photo provided

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was the guest for Robinson Professor of Public Affairs Steven Pearlstein’s “First Tuesday” series, which took place at 9 a.m. at Fenwick Library’s Main Reading Room in Fairfax. Cassidy joined Pearlstein and students—many of them Schar School Democracy Lab Learning Community participants—for a discussion regarding November’s bellwether congressional elections; he also described his experience as a medical doctor serving the uninsured and detailed what led him to run for public office. The next “First Tuesday” guest is GOP media strategist (and Mason grad) Danny Diaz on Tuesday, September 27, also at 9 a.m. The speaker series is open to all. The complete schedule is here.

From left, Michael Morell, Mary DeRosa, John Fitzpatrick, and Larry Pfeiffer discuss what Top Secret means. Photo by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

Why does information become classified, and what does that mean? And what are the ramifications if classified material isn’t secured and falls into the wrong hands? Who better to answer those questions than Schar School Distinguished Visiting Professor Michael Morell, former acting director and deputy director of the CIA, and Larry Pfeiffer, director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security and former senior director of the White House Situation Room. They were joined at 7 p.m. in the Hayden Center’s first live event in two years—called “Keeping Secrets”—by former National Security Legal Adviser Mary DeRosa and chief security officer for Ball Aerospace and former White House senior director for records access and information security management John Fitzpatrick. Morell moderated the conversation which drew some 75 attendees to the auditorium at Van Metre Hall at Mason Square and 95 watching via livestream. Another 355 have watched it at the Hayden Center’s YouTube channel this week.

Schar School assistant professor Ally Coll, right, with Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky. Photo by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

At 7:30 p.m. undergraduates from the Schar School’s new Jurisprudence Learning Community, Mason’s Patriot Pre-Law program, and the Scalia Law School Business Law Society hosted senior vice president and general counsel of Amazon David Zapolsky at Hazel Hall at Mason Square. Schar School assistant professor of legal studies Ally Coll moderated a conversation in which Zapolsky described how it is to manage a team of thousands of in-house lawyers and how he goes about addressing complex legal issues while conducting international commerce.
He also reflected on his own career path and gave advice to students about how to pursue their passions and find legal jobs that they will find both challenging and rewarding. His advice? Always be open to questioning the status quo, and don't assume something has to be done the way it's always been done in the past.

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Schar School News September 2022

Ally Coll

Scalia Law School

Jurisprudence Learning Community

Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence Policy and International Security

First Tuesday series takes students behind-the-scenes of political campaigns

Mariam Aburdeineh — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:05:00 +0000

First Tuesday series takes students behind-the-scenes of political campaigns Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 08/26/2020 - 20:05

George Mason alumnus Danny Diaz(left) speaks during a First Tuesday lecture series in Fall 2018 moderated by Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs Steve Pearlstein. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications

Political campaigns are complex—even for political scientists. For students studying the field, understanding what is happening behind the scenes of a campaign can be difficult. For the average citizen, the confusion can be even greater.

That’s why Steven Pearlstein created the First Tuesday speaker series. The Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at ��AV hopes it can help broaden perspectives on politics and challenge misconceptions that lead to political cynicism.

“The purpose here is to give students a sense of what campaigns and elections are like from the inside,” said Pearlstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at The Washington Post who hosts the series in conjunction with his Mason seminar course [HNRS 131 Contemporary Society in Multiple Perspectives].

Pulling the curtain back on campaigns has an often-unnoticed value, he said.

“[Political scientists] come up with mathematical models of elections that make it seem as if whatever the outcome is it’s inevitable,” Pearlstein said, adding that they don’t factor in how the campaign is run because of its nuanced intricacy. “They have a model about how campaigns and elections work that essentially ignores how good or bad a campaign is—this course is the antidote to that.”

Sponsored by the Schar School of Policy and Government and Mason’s Honors College, the First Tuesday speaker series (named for leading up to Election Day, the first Tuesday in November), pulls in experts from both sides of the political spectrum.

This year, students, faculty and community members will hear from a list of high-caliber professionals including:

· Peter Hart, dean of American political pollsters (Sept. 8)

· Mike Henry, former campaign manager of Senator Tim Kaine, Mark Warner and Gov. Terry McAuliffe (Sept. 15)

· Rebecca Pearcey, policy director of Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign (Sept. 22)

· Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and Republican media strategist (Sept. 29)

· Amy Gardner, political reporter and editor of The Washington Post (Oct. 6)

· U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, Democrat, Virginia 10^th District (Oct. 13)

· Danny Diaz, Republican political and communications strategist and Mason alumnus (Oct. 20)

· Lis Smith, communications director of Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign (Oct. 27)

· Tom Davis, former Republican Congressman from Virginia and former rector of Mason’s Board of Visitors

Peter Hart, Dean of American Political Pollsters, speaks to students during the Fall 2018 First Tuesday speaker series, a weekly series on the 2018 Congressional Elections, in the Main Reading Room at Fenwick Library. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications

The candid discussions about how elections are won and lost “lift the curtain behind the buzz words, and messaging the public is spoon fed,” Davis said.

It’s a worthwhile experience for students and the speakers whom Pearlstein interviews.

“I have learned just as I have shared, with students asking interesting questions and imparting well-informed views,” said Diaz, BA Communication ’00. “The exchanges are valuable because they allow political strategists the opportunity to address moments in time within the electoral system, while also providing context concerning how it can be viewed based on history, trends and experience.”

The series held every two years, during election cycles, will be virtual this year and is open to all via Zoom on Tuesdays at 9 a.m.: http://schar.gmu.edu/firsttuesday

“[It’s] well worth attending,” said Jim Pfiffner, professor emeritus in the Schar School who attended in 2018. “[Pearlstein] is an excellent interviewer and brings out interesting facets of [the speakers’] deep experience in politics.”

The hallmark of the series and its accompanying course is its hands-on nature. Keeping up with the news replaces a textbook, and students get paired with a Virginia voter who holds a different ideology than they do. Once a week they discuss the presidential race with that voter, and explore those conversations as a class.

For politically inclined students, the experience is unparalleled.

“There are very few schools in America that could get all these people on a speaker series like this,” Pearlstein said. “Only [schools] in Washington can easily do that, and I don’t think any of the other Washington schools do it to this degree.”

“What I hope students will see is that there’s a lot of very smart and experienced people who do campaigns at a high level,” he said. “It is somewhat of a science, but it’s also an art. And campaigns matter.”

Topics

Schar School of Policy and Government

Justice Kagan visits Mason for Roger Wilkins Lecture

John Hollis — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 16:20:15 +0000

Justice Kagan visits Mason for Roger Wilkins Lecture John Hollis Tue, 11/19/2019 - 11:20

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