George Mason, founded in 1972, is a public university. Programs are offered through the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Nursing and Health Science; the Schools of Information Technology and Engineering and Management; the Institutes of the Arts and Public Policy; the New Century College; the Institutes for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Biosciences, Bioinformatics, and Biotechnology; and the Graduate School of Education. Its 677-acre main campus is located in Fairfax, 18 miles from Washington, DC.