The George Mason University School of Law, today known as Antonin Scalia Law School, became Mason’s first program in Arlington in 1979 after the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates passed Senate Bill 607, authorizing the merger between George Mason University and the International School of Law.

The International School of Law (ISL) was founded in 1972 by a group of attorneys led by John Brabner-Smith, who became its first dean. In addition to Brabner-Smith, the ISL’s founding attorneys included James L. Fisk, Phil W. Jordan, George L. Powell and Daniel D. Smith. Brabner-Smith was part of the Illinois State Attorney’s prosecution team whose work helped bring down the notorious gangster, Al Capone. He then worked for the federal government before switching to private practice in Washington, DC. During World War II, he served as Chief of the Legal Division of the Army Provost Marshall General's office. After World War II, he served on the German Allied Control Council and lectured throughout Germany about constitutional governments. There, he met his future wife, Daniela Siemens. The couple married during the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and settled in Washington, DC.

In 1972, Daniela Brabner-Smith met University of Virginia Law School graduate and Marine Corps veteran Daniel D. Smith at a conference. They became friends, and she invited him and his wife to visit. During the Smith's visit, Brabner-Smith explained his plan to start a law school emphasizing morals and ethics. He invited Smith to join the ISL’s group of founders, who also financed the law school’s operations. Smith initially declined before accepting a few months later and becoming Administrative Dean. Smith, Powell, and their wives recruited the ISL’s first students by visiting the admissions office of the George Washington University Law School, obtaining the addresses of rejected applicants, and sending each one a mimeographed letter inviting them to apply for the ISL. Their efforts resulted in the ISL’s inaugural class of 32 students, who received instruction from part-time faculty. The following year, the ISL grew and moved to spaces on Rhode Island Avenue, which the faculty and students renovated themselves. However, despite efforts by the students and faculty to grow and improve the school, the American Bar Association (ABA) denied the ISL’s accreditation, making it nearly impossible for its graduates to practice law. The ISL applied for ABA accreditation a second time after adding several full-time faculty. However, right before their ABA review appointment, Brabner-Smith withdrew the application without consulting the ISL’s board members. As a result, the board terminated Brabner-Smith in 1975 and hired Ralph Norvell as Dean later that year. In 1977, the ISL purchased and moved into the former Kann’s department store building in the Virginia Square section of Arlington. Despite improvements to its space and faculty, the ISL was again denied ABA accreditation because it was a freestanding law school without an association to an accredited university. The ISL would need to merge with a university to continue, and George Mason University wanted to add a law school as part of its offerings. Norvell and George Mason University Board of Visitors Rector, Til Hazel, himself a Harvard Law alum, agreed to work together. To ensure the merger would succeed, Hazel created the “Urge to Merge” lobbying campaign to convince Virginia’s General Assembly to give their approval.

Law school students were motivated by the prospect of accredited degrees and a chance to sit for the bar exam, so they collaborated with Hazel on the campaign and were instrumental in its success. They traveled to Richmond and lobbied the General Assembly to approve the merger. Hazel said regarding the “Urge to Merge” campaign, “I was down there lobbying every way I knew how, but the real lobbyists, the effective ones, were the law students.” Both the House of Delegates and the Senate approved the merger by wide margins in early February 1979.  Officially opening on July 1, 1979, the newly established George Mason University School of Law held its first commencement in August of 1980, graduating 265 and received full ABA accreditation in 1986. In 2016, the law school was renamed Antonin Scalia Law School, after the late Supreme Court Justice. Today the Antonin Scalia Law School enrolls just over six hundred students. 

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The Clock stands on Wilkins Plaza at the intersection of the Johnson Center, Horizon Hall, Fenwick Library, and David King Hall. The number "1999" appears on the clock’s face, as it was a gift to the university from Mason's Class of 1999. Its estimated cost, according to the only Broadside article written about the Clock from September 20, 1999, was $15,000.

The establishment of the Clock as a physical part of the Fairfax Campus began as a project led by John Butler, Student Government President, from 1998-1999. Butler wanted the Student Government and graduating class of that year to give back to the university and leave a lasting legacy. The plaque on the clock’s base lists the names of 113 students from the Class of 1999 who contributed toward the purchase of the clock. According to some members of the Class of 1999, they did not recall hearing about the clock and thought it suddenly appeared one day. Jimmie Foster, Jr., a Broadside photographer, took the earliest known photographs of the clock on May 1, 1999.

In December 2018, the clock was removed and stored in a warehouse to allow for the expansion of Wilkins Plaza as part of the Core Campus Project. While the clock was away, its manufacturer, Verdin, fully refurbished it. Students previously noticed that the clock’s time was a few minutes off. The clock now has digital controls that eliminate the need for it to be manually programmed and ensure that it displays the correct time automatically. Verdin also thoroughly cleaned the clock and gave it new scratch-resistant lenses. The clock was reinstalled on Wilkins Plaza in December 2020.

Today, the clock remains an important landmark and gathering place for students due to its central location on the Fairfax campus. Students conduct club activities like fundraisers and recruitment near the clock, where they can catch the attention of students leaving the Johnson Center and Fenwick Library. In addition, the clock serves as a meeting point for protests and emergency evacuations. Finally, it has become a tradition for graduating students to take photos with the clock.

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George Mason (1725-1792) a Fairfax, Virginia planter authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Bill of Rights and Constitution, on which the United States Bill of Rights is based. A member of the original Constitutional Convention, Mason refused to sign the initial draft of the Constitution because it did not include a Bill of Rights.

In 1959 the president of The University of Virginia, Colgate W. Darden, Jr, suggested that a new name be chosen for its branch college at Bailey's Crossroads. Three names were offered to faculty, staff, and students for their consideration: "University College" (the name it had been using since its inception in 1957), "Northern Virginia College", and "George Mason College". The voting ended in a virtual three-way tie, and the University's Board of Visitors broke the tie by choosing "George Mason" at its December meeting that year.

In the late 1980s, the Student Government pointed up that GMU needed new ideas and traditions to boost school spirit and a sense of community. In February 1989 it publicly proposed erecting a statue of the school’s namesake on the quad to foster campus pride, unity and tradition. They estimated that the statue would cost between $30,000 and $50,000 and hoped that donations from student organizations would cover the costs over a five-year period. Although they made this announcement in 1989, students privately proposed the statue 2 years earlier, according to the official dedication program. Unfortunately, college students are generally not in a financial position to donate, the Student Government’s fundraising campaign was unsuccessful.

In 1992, the Student Government asked for assistance from Mason administrators. The Offices of the Provost and Student Affairs sponsored a competition for a nationally renowned sculptor to design the George Mason statue. It is challenging for artists to depict George Mason. The only surviving portrait of Mason shows him in his thirties and was painted nearly 20 years after his death. Out of four finalists, the students comprising the George Mason Statue Committee selected the 18-inch clay model made by Wendy M. Ross.

Ross studied at the University of Wisconsin and the San Francisco Art Institute and later received a Master of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. She currently maintains studios in Bethesda, Maryland, and Oregon. Ross has enjoyed a decades-long career and created sculptures for the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Capitol, and National Park Service. Her concept for the George Mason statue shows him presenting his first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776. She visited Mason’s home, Gunston Hall to do research, and the writing table in the sculpture replicates the one in his study. The books on the table are by John Locke, David Hume, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This selection of authors reflects Mason’s philosophical influences regarding ideas of personal liberty. Ross was also selected as the sculptor for the George Mason memorial on the National Mall, dedicated on April 9, 2002.

After attempts to secure public funds failed, the Arts Gala Committee, led by Joanne Johnson, commissioned the sculpture on August 1, 1995. They contributed $148,500, 93% of its $159,000 cost and presented the George Mason sculpture as a gift to the GMU community. The 10-foot-tall bronze statue was formally dedicated along with the Johnson Center on April 12, 1996. It was the first 3-D depiction of George Mason in United States history. The statue is located on the southern end of Wilkins Plaza and can be found between the Johnson Center and the Harris Theatre.

As the students envisioned, the George Mason statue has become a beloved landmark on campus with traditions and superstitions attached to it. It is a tradition for graduating students to get a photo with George. Student groups dress George up for festive occasions and milestones, like graduation and sporting events. He also dons t-shirts and holds signs to participate in student advocacy. Ross stated in interviews that she loves when students dress up the statue and how iconic it has become on campus. In addition, there are superstitions attached to the statue, bringing both good and bad luck. Students rub George’s left toe for good luck before important exams or papers. GMU legends say stepping on the plaques around the statue brings bad luck. If a current student does this, they will not graduate in four years, and a prospective student who does so will not be admitted to Mason.

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On the south side of campus, nearly adjacent to Braddock Road is EagleBank Arena. Mason’s 10,000-seat venue has hosted sporting events, commencements, concerts, and other major gatherings since its completion in 1985.

Ten years after becoming independent in 1972, George Mason University grew rapidly. Enrollment had increased by nearly 500% (14,500 from about 3,000). Mason president George W. Johnson was determined to increase the university’s visibility in northern Virginia and encourage citizens to visit the campus. The PE Building, built in 1973, served as a sports arena and an auditorium for commencements, university celebrations, and other affairs, but its maximum capacity was 3,000. By 1982 the university was nearing the point where it was graduating almost 2,000 individuals each spring. It was clear a large multi-use building for university events was needed.

Construction began in August of 1983 with an expected opening of January 1985. University President, George W. Johnson planned to have Spring Commencement in the building, initially called “Patriot Center”. Previous ceremonies were held in the PE Building (today known as the RAC) and on various outdoor spaces around campus. As unexpected construction delays pushed the opening back toward fall of that year, Johnson remained undeterred in his desire to hold the event in THAT building THAT SPRING, declaring: “We will have graduation in the arena on May 18. You may have to wear a hard hat, but we are having it in there.”

While graduating students had initially been told that their commencement would be held on the Quad in front of Fenwick Library, Johnson requested and received special permission from the building contractor to use Patriot Center, after passing necessary inspections, for the ceremony. Plywood was lain on the concrete floor and a temporary stage for the platform party was hastily set up. The concrete walls inside the arena, due to be painted in green and gold, remained unpainted and bare. Nevertheless, the ceremony went off without a hitch for the 2,204 graduates and their families on May 18. The arena was then re-closed to the public for completion of construction.

On October 4, 1985, the arena was open to the public for its first event; a capacity crowd, which included actor Jack Nicholson, saw a sold-out exhibition game between the New York Knicks and the Washington Bullets. The game featured then-rookie sensation and future Hall of Famer, Patrick Ewing. That fall Patriot Center became the permanent home of the Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams, ending twelve seasons in the PE Building.

On March 26, 2006, the Patriot Center was host to raucous victory celebration, as the Men’s Basketball team defeated the Number One Seed, University of Connecticut to earn a seat in the NCAA Final Four. As the game in the Verizon Center in Washington, DC ended, students formed a spontaneous victory parade around Patriot Circle and filled the Patriot Center to await the team’s return. As the team pulled into campus, fireworks were set off over Mason Pond. The team triumphantly marched into a Patriot Center full of happy students and members of the community.

Since 1985, the building has hosted over 3,000 events and is among the top 100 grossing arenas in the world. Beginning in 1998, EagleBank Arena's Parking Lot L has been host to the university's Mason Day event.

On May 7, 2015, the university announced that the name would be changed on July 1, 2015 to "EagleBank Arena at George Mason University" following a partnership deal with EagleBank.

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The Recreation and Athletic Complex (RAC) is home to three intercollegiate sports at Mason (wrestling, volleyball, and tennis) and plays a key part in Mason Recreation’s programming. At over 120,000 square feet the RAC features racquetball and squash courts, a two-story fitness center, and two smaller gyms. It is also host to the ROTC offices, and offices and classroom space for Mason’s School of Recreation, Health, and Tourism. While the RAC’s current modern look and amenities are due to a major renovation that took place between 2007 and 2009, the original building was completed in July of 1972.

George Mason College began planning for its Physical Education Center in 1968. Mason had just graduated its first class as a four-year college and was working toward becoming an independent university soon with an enrollment of over 15,000 by the mid-1980s. Virginia state-supported college programs at that time required all students to complete two years of physical education. Mason did not have the facilities to provide for an enrollment that was doubling every year in the late 1960s. Physical Education classes had to be held at Mason’s North Campus, 10 minutes away on Lee Highway. Its Basketball team had to play home games at W.T. Woodson High School over on Main Street in Fairfax. And at that time, it did not have a venue that could seat more than three hundred.

Planners stressed that a building for providing a space for physical education and other physical activities would surely have multiple uses such as: commencement exercises, musical events, dramatic performances, convocations, intercollegiate athletic events, large social events, and other uses for the local community, as well. With these uses in mind, the college successfully petitioned the Commonwealth to fund its Physical Education Center in 1969.

Groundbreaking and construction began in 1970 and was completed in July 1972 shortly after Hurricane Agnes passed through the northern Virginia area, dumping several inches of rain, and causing flood damage to the building’s floors. Cleanup crews were quickly brought in to prepare the building for immediate occupancy.

The new Physical Education Center or as Mason locals called it, “the PE Building”, was put to use immediately that fall. Faculty and staff moved into their new offices just ahead of the fall semester. Physical Education Classes (Phys Ed 123 and 133) for the Second Term of the Summer Session (July 18-August 17) were held in the building. On December 6, Governor A. Linwood Holton conducted his regional Governor’s Conference in the basketball gym. Nearly one-thousand Northern Virginia residents, business leaders, and constituents packed the bleachers for an opportunity to share their thoughts with the Governor. Athletes on the basketball, wrestling, and gymnastics teams began training and competing against their conference rivals on their new home turf, and Spring Commencement for 1973 was held there, as well.

Perhaps the most interesting and bizarre happening at the PE Building took place two days after the Governor’s Conference. On December 8, the rock band Mountain, then a major national act, was scheduled to play a show the PE Building. Oddly, an alumni dinner was taking place just above the gym on an upper floor. Rowdy behavior by gatecrashers trying to get into the sold out show prompted University President, Vergil Dykstra to come downstairs to assess the situation. Several windows in the building were smashed by the unruly visitors, and the doors into the gym were temporarily chained shut to prevent a stampede into the facility. Dr. Dykstra helped the situation by blocking a doorway himself until order could be restored.

In the mid-2000s, after over 30 years of continuous service, the venerable PE Building was due for a refresh. A multilevel addition was built, creating an additional two-story venue for wrestling and volleyball, as well as other multiuse rooms. Existing interior spaces were reorganized to maximize space. And a new, more modern exterior completed the upgrades. Overall, the building gained 67,000 additional usable square feet and received a new name, the Recreation and Athletic Complex.

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There is a legend among long-time faculty and staff at George Mason that the Lecture Hall on the Fairfax Campus was intended for another university in the commonwealth. Indeed, the author of this piece has been told by more than one long-tenured Mason employee that our Lecture Hall was meant to be built elsewhere. Believers in the legend point to the fact that the Lecture Hall does not resemble the initial buildings constructed at Fairfax just three years earlier. It is true that the Lecture Hall was initially scheduled to be completed in 1964, and it was meant to resemble the North, South, East and West Buildings in many respects, but budget overruns forced the Lecture Hall to be eliminated from the initial construction.

In 1965 the University of Virginia (Mason's then parent institution) successfully petitioned the General Assembly for funding to add this missing piece to compliment the Library that was already underway. As with the original four buildings, the University chose a local architect to design the Lecture Hall. The firm, Vosbeck and Vosbeck of Alexandria was the same which designed Fenwick Library, but, interestingly, not the same which designed the original four buildings (Saunders and Pearson - also of Alexandria). Construction began in Spring of 1966 and was complete in December of 1967. The Lecture Hall had three auditoriums, one large one seating three hundred and two smaller ones, each seating one hundred.

By the spring semester of 1968, the Lecture Hall was busy around the clock hosting classes and other noteworthy events. In February, there was a controversial and well-attended program where faculty members debated whether colleges should eliminate the grading system. In March, Mason's Agora Society presented Shakespeare's The Country Wife. Tickets sold for $1.00 each. In April and May, Philosophy professor Dr. James Shea appeared in several Vietnam War-related teach-ins in the Lecture Hall. And on June 9, it hosted Mason's first Commencement. The college initially planned to confer degrees on the fifty-two members of Mason's Class of 1968 outdoors on the lawn in front of the Lecture Hall, but rain was in the forecast for that day, forcing the ceremony indoors. 

The Lecture Hall was the venue for another notable gathering in 1974. On February 11 peace activists Jane Fonda, her husband, founder of Students for a Democratic Society, Tom Hayden, and folk singer Holly Near visited George Mason University as part of the Indochina Peace Initiative tour. It was attended by about one hundred George Mason students, faculty, and staff, some of whom, it has been rumored, were FBI agents disguised as students.

In the early 2000's the Lecture Hall was among several buildings on the north side of campus set to be demolished for the creation of a global education complex. This never came to fruition, and it has remained a part of the Fairfax Campus. 

The Lecture Hall has played a key part in the function of the university ever since it first opened over fifty-six years ago. Simple but unique among the other places on the Fairfax Campus, it has had and continues to play a small yet significant role at Mason.

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A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Fairfax campus was held on August 1, 1963. Students at Bailey’s Crossroads knew of the construction, but few were interested in following it. Student photographers Jim Wilson and Bill Flandermeyer visited the campus while it was under construction and took some of the earliest photographs of the Fairfax campus. The campus at Fairfax officially opened on Monday, September 14, 1964, to 356 registered students. This number represented a 58% increase in the student population from the final school year at Bailey’s Crossroads. The original campus consisted of four buildings, named North, South, East and West, each for the direction it faced. Because the campus was initially small, students spent much of their campus life from 1964 to 1974 in these first four buildings. The then-state-of-the-art buildings were designed and built by local businesses Joseph Saunders & Associates of Alexandria and Eugene Simpson and brother, respectively.   On opening day, Mason’s new director, Robert Reid, boasted to the Fairfax Times that Mason was the first fully air-conditioned college in the Washington, D.C., area. Air conditioning was a welcome change for students and faculty who experienced the lack of climate control in the old school building at Bailey’s Crossroads. They were delighted with the spacious, top-of-line classrooms and laboratories. The air conditioning and brand-new facilities temporarily distracted them from realizing the campus lacked some essential amenities. During the first week, there was no faculty lounge or place for students to get food and beverages. Mason’s administration quickly set up vending machines in a study hall as a temporary solution. The campus was formally dedicated on November 12, 1964. The ninety-minute dedication ceremony took place in front of the North Building. Nearly a thousand people attended, including prominent politicians, educators, members of the community and the local press. Construction was still ongoing when the Fairfax campus opened. The sidewalks were incomplete, so planks were put down when it rained. The covered walkways between the buildings had yet to be constructed. Former students described the campus as “a sea of mud.” Even with the wooden planks, mud was difficult to avoid since students had to cross an unpaved path between the North and East Buildings to reach their gravel parking lot. Photographs from the 1965 to 1966 yearbook show that in addition to the completion of sidewalks and covered walkways, the roads around campus and parking spaces were paved, finally ending the mud problem.

South Building (Krug Hall) By 1965, the students received a dining hall in the basement of the South Building. They named it the Ordinary, after the old English word for a pub. Chemical smells often drifted in from the biology and chemistry laboratories directly above. The Ordinary quickly became a popular hangout spot for students. Like their predecessors at the Bailey’s Crossroads campus, alumni from the Class of 1968 recalled playing competitive games of Hearts, Spades and Bridge. These card games were sometimes so intense that students nearly missed classes. The Ordinary started serving fresh food in the fall of 1965. Articles in The Gunston Ledger frequently complained that the Ordinary was too crowded, so additional spaces for students to gather were added or improved in the East and West Buildings beginning in 1965. The Ordinary featured a jukebox. When the original jukebox died in April of 1966, a student penned an obituary for it in The Gunston Ledger commemorating its year and a half of service to students. The Gunston Ledger gleefully announced the purchase of a new jukebox for the Ordinary in October 1966. The Ordinary remained a gathering place for students until 1974 when the building that is now SUB I was completed. Mason Day began in 1965 as a half-day of speeches and awards the day after UVA's Founder's Day celebration. During the 1968 to 1969 school year, Student Government Activities Chair, Mike Baker, transformed Mason Day into a multi-day spectacle of fun and entertainment. As part of Mason Day in 1969, for 3 days, 40 male students camped in tents behind the South Building. The event was labeled “Mason’s First Dormitories.” They ate their meals in the Ordinary, played sports on the lawn, roasted hot dogs, played music, watched movies and attended a presentation by local photographer Charles Baptie in the Lecture Hall, and staged a water balloon fight. Mason Tent City remained a tradition until 1977, when the university opened permanent dormitories.

North Building (Finley Building) The North Building originally housed Mason’s administrative offices. An anonymous article in The Gunston Ledger, on November 16, 1967, decried that Mason was the only institution in Virginia without a flagpole. The writer implored students to find a way to raise $150 for a flagpole. The shaming worked, and a flagpole, which no longer stands, was installed in front of the North Building shortly after. According to Broadside, beginning November 10, 1969, students stood in front of the flagpole in a memorial vigil of the lives lost in the Vietnam War. The previous month, the Vietnam War Moratorium Committee had presented Chancellor Lorin Thompson with a petition containing hundreds of signatures from students and faculty asking to be excused for one day of classes to participate in anti-war activities. Thompson rejected their petition. The vigils in front of the flagpole, visible from the administrative offices, were likely a response to his denial of their request. The Vietnam War Moratorium Committee had officially scheduled to attend an off-campus event on November 14, 1969. So students were shocked when a group of protestors, in a spectacle Broadside called "Guerrilla Theatre", burned an American flag in the Ordinary. That same afternoon, Professor James Shea led students in burning draft cards in the Quadrangle. The Guerrilla Theatre incident divided the Vietnam War Moratorium Committee's student leaders, with Jim Corrigan speaking out against it and George Whelpley behind it. The Student Government was similarly divided, voting 6-3-3 to oppose disciplinary action against those responsible for the incidents. The Student Government supported Shea and asked the administration to retain him. On the morning of May 6, 1970, Mason students asked Thompson to lower the flag in honor of students killed by the National Guard at Kent State University two days earlier. Thompson denied their request. A Kent State student spoke in the Quadrangle. Following the speech, a demonstration of fifty Mason students marched to the flagpole in an attempt to lower the flag by cutting the cord used to raise and lower it. Campus police confronted the demonstrating students. At noon, Thompson agreed to lower the flag to half-mast to accommodate the students and prevent any unrest.

East Building The second floor of the East Building served as Mason's library until its free standing library was completed in late 1967. The entire East Building had originally been allotted for the library. However, the librarian generously gave two floors back to the college, which they used for classrooms and an additional lounge. In 1965, SAGE, a women’s organization on campus, hosted a fashion show in the East Building. On June 9, 1965, the first final day exercises were held in the East Building, and Mason’s class of 1965 received their diplomas. In 1968, the first class to graduate with Bachelor’s degrees from Mason put on their graduation robes in Eats before proceeding to the ceremony in the Lecture Hall.

West Building The West Building became the center of attention at Mason on September 21, 1966. At 2:10 pm that day, a hot water pump motor in the boiler room burned out and caused an electrical fire. The building’s supervisor discovered it but found his telephone was out of order. He then drove to the Fairfax Fire Station to report to the fire alarm. Seven fire trucks from Fairfax, Vienna, and Annandale responded to the fire alarm. The fire marshal ordered everyone to evacuate the smoke-filled West Building upon arrival. Firefighters set up fans to blow the smoke out of the building. Once it cleared, they put out the fire with a regular fire extinguisher. No one was injured, but students and staff were inconvenienced because the fire knocked out all telephone service and many of the lights across campus. The food machines in the Ordinary also did not work. Classes were dismissed for the rest of the day.

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