PHILADELPHIA - A new fellowship fund supporting University of Pennsylvania criminology master students and named in honor of former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno will be formally created at a University symposium on March 31.

The establishment of the Janet Reno Fellowship Fund will be announced at an event at which Reno will speak, according to Lawrence W. Sherman, chair of the department of criminology, which is hosting the event.  

Laurie Robinson, director of the Master of Science in Criminology program and a former assistant attorney general under Reno, and her husband, Sheldon Krantz, a Washington, D.C., lawyer with the firm of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, have contributed a leadership gift to create the fund.  Robinson will also be working to raise additional support for the fund.

"We launched our one-year Master of Science in Criminology program in 2004 for individuals who are interested in careers in criminal justice policy and practice and who are passionate about making change happen in how the justice system does business," Sherman said.  "This generous gift from Laurie and Sheldon will help provide vital support to our most outstanding students."

"Naming this fund after the pre-eminent criminal justice change agent was only natural," Robinson said.  "We are honored to have Janet Reno here with us at its launching."

Reno's lecture and the announcement of the fund will take place as part of the Criminology Department's second annual Penn Criminology Day.  Additional information about the event, including the full program, is at www.crim.upenn.edu/reunion.htm.