Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef received an award from the Anti-Defamation League this week for his commitment to civil rights, educational opportunity and the university's mission of public service. The Anti-Defamation League presented its Distinguished Community Service Award to Vanderhoef at a dinner held in his honor Tuesday in Sacramento. The league's Central Pacific Region office lauded Vanderhoef for being a "staunch defender of civil rights" and for making "noteworthy contributions to the field of education and the community at large." In particular, the human-rights organization cited his outspoken reaction against the March 1997 vandalism of campus murals painted by Young Black Scholars and the gay fraternity Delta Lambda Phi. Vanderhoef joins a list of prominent public officials, business leaders and community activists who have received the award. Past recipients include former California Gov. George Deukmejian; former Rep. Vic Fazio, D-West Sacramento; former Sacramento Bee president and general manager Frank Whittaker; and Food for Families president and Raley's Superstores co-chair Joyce Raley Teel. Besides Vanderhoef's record of supporting civil rights, the league also noted his scholarly contributions as a plant biologist, service on national grant-review committees and involvement in regional civic organizations. Vanderhoef has a long record as an advocate of affirmative action. He opposed the UC regents' decision to ban consideration of race, ethnicity or gender in admissions. He also was involved in developing the "Principles of Community." Those principles reject discrimination, advocate civility, embrace freedom of expression, celebrate diversity and promote efforts to build a "true community of spirit and purpose based on mutual respect and caring." The campus statement, adopted in 1990 and reaffirmed in 1996, was recently selected as a "promising practice" and posted on a White House Web page as part of President Clinton's Initiative on Race. Vanderhoef said he was surprised but pleased by the award. He said he believes supporting civil rights doesn't always call for dramatic action, but requires an intolerance of discrimination and acts of hate. "It is day-in, day-out behavior, and it's not complicated," he said. "It is more than personal respect for civil rights. It is speaking out, taking action when necessary, when others abuse civil rights." Vanderhoef has made creating a "fully engaged university" a signature of his administration, encouraging campus efforts to address societal problems. During his administration, UC Davis has also launched partnerships with inner-city Sacramento public schools in an effort to help improve educational quality and increase the number of students going on to college. Vanderhoef said such long-term efforts are integral to protecting civil rights. "Those most subject to abuse of their civil rights are those with inadequate education," he said. "Universities are about education. We have become more involved in K-12 education in the past two years than ever before in our history. Our engagement is in those schools where student failure is most likely. It's there, where students from third-grade on are least likely to make it finally into a university, that our efforts will grow." Vanderhoef became chancellor five years ago after serving a decade as executive vice chancellor, a post expanded during his tenure to executive vice chancellor and provost. A plant physiologist, he earned his doctoral degree from Purdue University after getting his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He was a biology professor and department chair at the University of Illinois, Urbana, then became provost at the University of Maryland, College Park, before coming to UC Davis in 1984.