Established in 1934 as part of American University, the school houses three academic departments - Public Administration & Policy, Government, and Justice, Law & Criminology - as well as ten centers and institutes.

The School of Public Affairs was created on March 3, 1934 with a $4,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to provide training to 80 promising young federal government employees in downtown Washington, D.C. By 1937, its enrollment had grown to more than 1,000 students, and it had expanded its mission to include undergraduate and graduate degrees.

[2] The Department of Public Administration & Policy (DPAP) is home to 32 full-time faculty members and enrolls about 65% of SPA's graduate students.

[4] The Department of Government is home to 40 full-time faculty members[3] and focuses primarily on offering undergraduate political science courses to its nearly 1,500 major students.

[3] JLC is home to AU's mock trial team, which has become a nationally competitive squad under the guidance of head coach Mike Romano.