DiIulio returns to speak

Penn Professor John DiIulio, currently on leave from the University for a White House appointment, returned to campus to give the inaugural Jerry Lee Lecture yesterday. The lecture was cosponsored by the University's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology and the International Campbell Collaboration, a committee which studies the effectiveness of community intervention programs around the world. The event, held at the University Museum, was part of the committee's annual convention, held in Philadelphia. Three weeks ago, DiIulio announced that he would take a year-long leave of absence from Penn to head the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, created last month by President Bush. The office has caused controversy across the nation over the legitimacy of federally funding religious groups. But DiIulio said yesterday he believes that he has the support of the general public, providing the audience with his take on federal funding policy. "The public has a great deal of faith... in moving in this direction," he said. While DiIulio is on leave, University President Judith Rodin will temporarily take over as director of the Fox Leadership Program, one of DiIulio's major projects at Penn. The program develops leadership skills among students. "The program is extremely important to the School of Arts and Sciences, and she has tremendously strong connections and understanding of the purpose of the program," DiIulio said. DiIulio said he was involved in the decision to appoint Rodin to take his place. He added that he was pleased that Rodin agreed to take on the responsibility. "She has a tremendous capacity to bring people in," he said. "If the President of the University steps on board, it sends a message about how important this program is." DiIulio spoke to about 150 students and committee members about the ways in which he believes the federal government can improve its funding policies. "It's government by proxy," DiIulio said. "There really is no one place to go with research findings. It could be that the network of providers we've been using is not the optimal one." DiIulio said he hopes to address some of the problems that, in his eyes, have not been given enough attention in recent years. "It is very, very difficult... for the government to ask the kinds of questions that need to be asked," DiIulio said. "The common sense of the subject doesn't always turn out to be the real sense of the subject." Although the first lecture in the Jerry Lee series was held at Penn, future lectures will be held elsewhere in conjunction with the committee's annual conference. But Center of Criminology Director Larry Sherman, also the Director of the Fels Center of Government, said that the lecture will always be tied to Penn through the criminology center. "What we are doing here is using Penn as the base of this worldwide network," Sherman said. "Whether we meet in Stockholm of Sydney, Penn is the brain of that network." Sherman added that DiIulio's first-hand experience with social science research made him an obvious choice for the inaugural lecture. "I can think of no one better to give this lecture than a person who, like our founder, is a person of facts over faith," Sherman said. The Center for Criminology was founded last fall by a donation from Jerry Lee, president of B101 Radio in Philadelphia. "Jerry Lee is one of the world's leading philanthropists of social sciences," Sherman said. "He and the Jerry Lee center have promoted the idea that research works."