SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- E.G. Sander, Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Arizona, and Terry Gibson, Director of Program Development and Evalutiaon at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, and Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, were honored Feb. 14 with the ADEC Irving Award. The Irving Award is the highest honor presented by the 55-member distance education consortium of state and land-grant universities and colleges.

The awards were presented during the consortium's annual two-day meeting by Tom Fretz, Chairman of the ADEC Board of Directors and Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland-College Park.

The Irving Award is named for Dr. Irvin Omtvedt, Vice Chancellor of the University of Nebraska's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources and ADEC's founder and first chairman of the board. Omtvedt and Rodney Foil, Vice President of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine at Mississippi State University, joined Fretz in honoring the recipients.

Omtvedt and Foil received the first Irving Awards presented by the organization in 1995.

Sander was honored for his imaginative leadership as chairman of the ADEC Board of Directors from 1996-1998. Under Sander, the organization has grown by more than one-third, now including international affiliates and a larger number of historically black institutions. He also proposed inviting the new land-grant tribal colleges to become a part of ADEC on a complimentary basis. He served on the board from 1993 to the present.

"We are now responsible for administering the Agricultural Telecommunications Program on behalf of the U.S. Congress and Department of Agriculture," Fretz said. "He encouraged our organization to think boldly and take new initiatives to bring more technology-based education directly to homes and learning centers. We can also thank Gene for making sure that every one of our new projects was founded on a secure financial base."

Sander was also responsible for suggesting, establishing and supporting the system of ADEC Principal Contact Officers (PCOs) who run the organization on a day-to-day basis at each member institution.

"Gene's background as an internationally recognized scientist and biochemist served him well in developing workable organizational structures for ADEC. Turf just isn't in his vocabulary," said ADEC President Janet Poley. "He likes to lay out the big picture and then supports others in getting it accomplished as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Before moving to Arizona, Sander served as deputy chancellor of biotechnology development for the Texas A&M University System. He was also director of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Texas A&M; chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at West Virginia University Medical Center and associate chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the College of Medicine at the University of Florida. As an officer in the U.S. Air Force, he was the assistant chief of the Biospecialties Section at the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota and Cornell University.

Gibson was honored for his continued quality service to the organization. He was one of the original individuals involved with the formation of AgSat and chaired its Production and Operation Council. When ADEC was formed, he became co-chair of its Program Panel and was responsible for the development and implementation of a number of program and technology initiatives. The focus on quality within ADEC was the work of Gibson. He led the Quality Distance Education (QDE) program initiated throughout ADEC that included audio conference discussions, printed materials, case studies and a national videoconference on this issue. Working with his wife, Chere Campbell Gibson, he developed the Quality Distance Education Guidelines used by ADEC. In 1998 he traveled to Malawi in southern Africa to develop a relationship for the organization with Bunda College and all of higher education in the country.

Gibson is a native of Ohio and holds degrees from Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current responsibilities at the University of Wisconsin-Extension include program development, evaluation, video production, video satellite program coordination and instructional design for distance learning. He is also a professor in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fifteen years ago he began the Wisconsin Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning now attended by more than 1,000 participants from around the world.

ADEC is headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; it also does business as the American Distance Education Consortium and the Agricultural Satellite Corporation (AgSat). Member institutions provide academic, non-academic and extension programs using technologies to learners throughout the world. The ADEC web page is http://www.adec.edu.