ORONO – University of Maine President Peter Hoff is among three finalists to be chancellor of the Oregon University System.

Hoff, who has headed the UM campus for five years, said in a prepared statement that his application had been solicited for the new position.

He is spending most of the week interviewing with campus presidents, faculty, students and top officials in the chancellor’s office in Eugene, Ore.

Also vying for the position are Warren H. Fox, executive director of the California Postsecondary Education Commission, and Richard S. Jarvis, chancellor of United States Open University, a branch of Britain’s Open University, a correspondence and Internet college.

The seven-campus Oregon system has 74,000 students. The largest campus in the system is Portland State University with an enrollment of around 20,000. It also includes the University of Oregon.

The new chancellor will earn between $170,00 and $190,000 a year. The position also comes with the use of a house in Eugene and a $20,000 annual expense account, according to The Oregonian, a Portland, Ore., newspaper.

Hoff currently makes $147,211 and, like the other campus presidents, was due to receive a 3 percent raise July 1. He also has a university-provided home and other benefits.

In a statement issued by the UM public affairs office, Hoff, 57, said he and his wife, Dianne, an assistant professor of educational leadership, are “very happy” in Maine and that “only an extraordinary opportunity elsewhere could induce us to leave.”

“I have not been looking for any such opportunity but was heavily recruited for the Oregon chancellorship. We eventually decided to explore the possibility after strong encouragement from several friends in Oregon whose opinions we respect. At this stage we are still investigating whether Oregon is a good fit for us.” he said.

UM faculty members said Monday they were surprised and disappointed at Hoff’s possible departure.

“I think he’s done a good job. He really moved the university overall in the right direction,” said history professor Howard Segal, a member of the search committee that set its sights on Hoff five years ago.

Faculty Senate President John Maddaus, associate professor of education, said he’d be sorry to see Peter and Dianne Hoff leave.

“He’s done a good job. He’s been someone that the faculty senate has been able to work well with,” Maddaus said. “I would hate to lose both of them.”

Last year’s faculty senate president, Michael Grillo, associate professor of art, praised Hoff for having “open communications.”

Oregon University System spokesman Bob Bruce said the 11-member board of trustees would name a new chancellor by the end of the month.

“Dr. Hoff is an extremely strong candidate,” Bruce said. “We know he has accomplished a great deal at the University of Maine and that he also has had significant systems administration experience in other states. All of our candidates are individuals who have had considerable experience working in other systems across the country.”