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He may be retired from the faculty, but longtime Schar School professor Bill Schneider is hardly slowing down. After all, the journalist, political analyst, and author has covered every presidential election since 1964, and old habits die hard.
“I’ll still write my column for The Hill, and I do some broadcasting—I’m a contributor to Al-Jazeera English, which is an international broadcasting network,” he said.
He’s also not giving up teaching: This fall will see Schneider teach as a volunteer instructor for Encore Learning, the nonprofit adult education program that shares classroom space with the Schar School at George Mason University’s Arlington Campus. His course will examine November’s Virginia elections.
Schneider was recruited to the Schar School in 2009 to teach American politics as he was wrapping up his 19-year career at CNN as senior political analyst. Schneider’s experience and expertise fit the faculty profile the school was looking for.
"Bill Schneider represents what is best about the Schar School—a publicly engaged intellectual who advances knowledge of critical political and policy issues both within and outside of academia,” said Schar School dean Mark J. Rozell.
“He may be retiring from teaching, but I know he is not slowing down his writing and commentary on American politics and government."
As for parting words to live by, Schneider recalled a statement he heard during his own college career at Brandeis University. When he asked Leonard Hall, a U.S. representative from New York and former chair of the Republican National Committee, how Barry Goldwater managed to win the nomination to run against Lyndon Johnson in 1964, “He said,” Schneider said, “‘Goldwater's people are the kinds of people who stay until the ends of meetings.’ Which I’ve always used: People who stay for the ends of meetings do well in politics.”