Library dedicated to founding dean of Rutgers–Newark’s School of Criminal Justice
Archived article from Nov 3, 2003
By Mike Sutton
The late Don Gottfredson, who served as founding dean of Rutgers’ School of Criminal Justice and helped build the program into one of the finest of its kind in the country, was honored by Rutgers officials, faculty, students and his family Oct. 15 at ceremonies dedicating the Don M. Gottfredson Library of Criminal Justice in the Center for Law and Justice on the Newark campus.
President Richard L. McCormick, Newark Provost Steven Diner, School of Criminal Justice Dean Les Kennedy and former colleagues paid tribute to Gottfredson’s resolve to apply scholarly solutions to real-world settings, both at the dedication and at the symposium, “Criminal Justice Policy and Research: Bridging the Gap,” that preceded it. “He demonstrated the practical benefits that society can reap if we gather the best minds that we can bring to bear on the study of criminal justice,” Diner said. Gottfredson is considered to be the inventor of “criminal justice decisions criteria.” These principles have resulted in decision-making guidelines for sentencing and parole that continue to shape public policy, such as conditional inmate release to alleviate prison overcrowding.
The newly named Gottfredson Library offers one of the most comprehensive collections of crime and criminal justice materials in the world. It includes 80,000 monographs, 7,000 dissertations, 2,500 bound periodicals, 225 subscriptions to journals and periodicals, and 20,000 documents on microfiche. The library acquires more than 3,000 new titles each year.
Gottfredson’s son, Michael, who serves as executive vice chancellor at the University of California at Irvine, observed, “My colleagues in academe generally regard the library as the heart of the university, and I want to express my gratitude for joining my father with the heart of this university.”
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