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CORVALLIS - For the second year in a row, the American Distance Education Consortium has recognized a rapidly growing distance degree program in natural resources offered by Oregon State University as one of the nation's finest.

OSU received the consortium's Honorable Mention for Excellence in Distance Education Award. ADEC is an international consortium of state universities and land-grant institutions that provide distance education programs and services.

'This award is tremendous recognition for the great work of this team and OSU," said Bill McCaughan, dean of OSU Extended Campus. "It illustrates the good work our staff and faculty are doing to offer the highest quality educational programs to non-traditional and non-resident students."

The program has grown from a total of 138 students taught in the first six terms to 272 students in the past five terms. As of January 2003, a total of 94 students were enrolled in the natural resources distance program, compared to 55 students a year earlier. An additional 42 students are taking courses preparing to enter the program. The students are located in 30 states and two countries in addition to the United States.

OSU's natural resources degree is offered through the university's colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Forestry, Liberal Arts, and Science.

The natural resources degree program has been offered through distance education at OSU since 1999. Most upper division course work is delivered via the web and videotapes and lower division course work must be taken at community colleges or other institutions. In all, OSU provides more than 45 distance courses from five colleges and 21 academic departments that support natural resource offerings.