News Brief

Radio station head gives $2 million to U. Penn's Jerry Lee Criminology Center received a $2 million gift yesterday from its namesake, WBEB 101.1 FM radio station president Jerry Lee. "It'll help increase teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels in criminology," said Criminology Center Director Lawrence Sherman, a professor of sociology and director of the Fels Institute of Government. The money -- aimed at attracting two new assistant professors to the center -- will be used for research of the cause and prevention of crime and criminology classes at the introductory and graduate levels. The gift's recipients have yet to be discovered, as the center will "engage in a long process of recruiting to get the best people in the world," Sherman said. Lee donated $5 million to establish the center two years ago and continues to accredit Sherman with the success of criminology research and education at Penn. "Larry Sherman is the top researcher in the world when it comes to criminology," Lee said. "That's why I bet my money on him." Lee first met Sherman in 1997 after stumbling upon and downloading his congressionally-mandated report to former Attorney General Janet Reno -- "Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising" -- on the Department of Justice Web site. "I said to myself, this is what I'm looking for," Lee said, adding that he then sought out Sherman at the University of Maryland, where Sherman served as chairman of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. "The rest is history." -- Madlen Read