Criminologist takes helm of Fels Center

School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston named renowned criminologist Lawrence Sherman as the new director of the Fels Center of Government this June, ending a nearly 6-month search and granting the public management program its first permanent head since 1996. Sherman, who will be appointed the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations in the Sociology Department, was the chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland before arriving at Penn this summer. Since Sherman will be a Sociology professor, Fels will now fall under SAS jurisdiction, after having previously operated out of both the Graduate School of Fine Arts and the Office of the Provost. This classification means that Preston bears responsibility for Fels' budget as well as mounting courses and hiring additional professors. Expectations run high for Sherman -- the department's lone criminology expert -- who administrators hope will turn the institute into one of the nation's leading public policy research centers. "He is an extremely gifted administrator as well as a wonderful scholar," Preston said. "He has built the best and largest program in criminology in the country at Maryland." And Political Science Professor Jack Nagel, who headed the search committee charged with finding a new director, commended Sherman for his "outstanding record of scholarship" and his "superlative record of entrepreneurial leadership in an academic setting." Sherman himself was unavailable for comment this week. The Fels Center is a public management program that primarily caters to graduate students interested in pursuing careers in public service, allowing them to earn master's degrees in governmental administration. In recent years, however, Fels has experienced its share of turmoil and controversy, as former director James Spady resigned in late 1996 after having heated disputes with the program's administrators regarding the direction of the program. Then, with Fels mired in what Nagel called a "holding pattern," a panel of University administrators debated Fels' future and ultimately decided against its abolition. And last summer, Paul Light, the University's top candidate for the job and a director at the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, rejected an offer to head up the Fels Center. Last fall, a search committee convened and, after reviewing several dozen applications, brought three potential candidates to Penn, one of whom was Sherman.

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