When University of Maine President Peter Hoff couldn’t get what he wanted for lunch last week, he took it as a sign things were OK on the Orono campus.

“This is what it means to be a university president. Commands don’t come from on high. Every voice is just one voice,” said Hoff, whose request that the University Club serve salad instead of pasta apparently had been overruled.

Hoff’s view that all members of the academic community, especially faculty, should have “a strong voice” is one of the things professors like most about him, several said recently as they reflected on his five years of leading the University of Maine System’s flagship campus.

The consensus among professors who were interviewed and willing to speak on the record is that the university is better off today than it was five years ago in just about every arena.

They commended Hoff for increasing enrollment, creating partnerships with businesses, establishing better relationships with the state’s schools and improving the general image of UMaine.

But even while praising Hoff’s presidency broadly, some professors offered criticism, frequently off the record. Some feel he is out of touch with faculty and the day-to-day operations of the campus. Some said he’s given humanities and social sciences short shrift in favor of engineering and hard sciences that receive a great deal more research funding.

A few critics said he hadn’t done well with fund raising, or had failed to make the campus more culturally diverse.

If any faculty members had any overarching criticism about Hoff’s administration, however, they kept it to themselves, saying such “negativity” might bolster the position of the University of Southern Maine, UM’s rival in the race for state funding, or jeopardize funding for their own departments.

View from Katahdin

The average college president lasts only five years in the lightning-rod job. Hoff, 58, already has put in more time at UM than any president since Howard Neville, who administered the campus for six years before departing in 1979.

Budget problems that to date have sent only tremors through Maine higher education may turn into a major earthquake next year. Meanwhile, Hoff, like any college president, has attracted criticism as well as praise for conditions over which he has little control. Given such circumstances, it isn’t strange that rumors have circulated for months that he has checked out top positions at campuses in Oregon, Florida and Maryland.

The president, who is paid $151,628 annually, compared his tenure at UM with a hike up Mount Katahdin.

“You … reach a point where you’ve gone far enough that you can look back on how far you’ve come and draw conclusions about how things are going,” he said.

When he looks back, he sees an impressive list of accomplishments.

One of his chief goals has been to attract more students to the Orono campus. This fall he achieved part of that with the largest freshman class in more than a decade, with SAT scores that remained stable.

When he arrived in 1997, there were 20 high school valedictorians and 29 salutatorians in the freshman class. Now first-year students include 32 valedictorians and 42 salutatorians.

In 1997, 257 out-of-state students were enrolled in UM’s freshman class, compared to 358 today.

And five years ago there were 70 minority students enrolled as freshmen, compared to 80 this year. This in a state listed as the “whitest” in the country in the 2000 Census.

During his presidency, the amount of grants for research and development projects increased from $24.1 million in 1996 to $50.2 million, although Maine remains near the bottom of the nation among research universities.

He’s also helped broaden the university’s role in economic development. Under Hoff, UM established its first “technology-based business incubators,” as well as a wood-composites business using technology at UM’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center.

Hoff also helped bring in money for new and renovated buildings for chemistry, physics, food science, molecular biology, engineering and marine science.

During his administration, star faculty members have been recruited to teach and do research in social work, business, marine science, new media and other areas and to fill endowed chairs in business and forest resources.

He helped create the Center for Teaching Excellence, which helps professors be better instructors, and The Honors College, as well as the Hutchinson Center, an extension program in Belfast.

Currently he’s focused on how to improve the training of the state’s teachers and nurses, he said.

Positive force

Howard Segal, a history professor who served on the presidential search committee and who supported Hoff for the president’s position, said overall he hasn’t been disappointed.

He praised Hoff for seeking research funding from the federal government and for establishing “long overdue” partnerships with leading area private institutions like the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough and The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor.

Calling Hoff “an extremely positive force” for the university’s research and development, professor George Jacobson, director of the Institute for Quaternary and Climate Studies, said the president has helped “make us a stronger university. He came in as we were starting to develop a strong initiative in building research and development efforts, and he has been a strong supporter of that from the beginning. He’s never wavered from that.”

John Maddaus, associate professor of education, said Hoff “takes the shared governance of the institution and the faculty role seriously.”

For example, when faculty members wanted to have a say in evaluating administrators, Hoff worked with them to develop a process, said Maddaus, who last year was president of the Faculty Senate.

James McClymer, associate professor of physics, praised Hoff for his accessibility. “If you try to make an appointment with him you can get it. I think he actually hears what you have to say,” said McClymer.

Hoff has been “as effective if not more so” than the previous six presidents, said professor James Warhola, who has taught political science at UM for 20 years.

“He’s been very effective in communicating … the strengths of the University of Maine in ways that were woefully lacking prior to his presidency,” said Warhola.

“So far, [Hoff’s] right on track,” said wood science professor Robert Rice, current president of the Faculty Senate.

Rice said he’s optimistic Hoff will be able to increase student retention rates, expand library facilities, keep the number of full-time faculty at a high level and increase student diversity.

“These are things on which our reputation is established nationwide,” he said.

Campus tour

Usually serious and introspective, Hoff has flashes of humor that appear when least expected.

Last week, at a meeting the president convened to discuss making curriculum more relevant in the wake of Sept. 11, Provost Robert Kennedy introduced himself by joking he “work[s] in crisis management.”

Without missing a beat, Hoff jumped in. “I create the crises,” he said wryly, invoking gales of laughter from around the table.

Later that day, Hoff set out on one of his routine campus tours in which he drops in on various departments and chats with faculty and students.

“We have over 200 buildings and I’ve probably been in every one. I may be the only person on campus” who can say that, he said.

Passing the stately Victorian president’s house, Hoff happily pointed out the quick walk from his home to his office in Alumni Hall.

“It’s one of the perks of being in Maine,” said Hoff, recalling that his daily commute hasn’t always been so easy.

As vice chancellor for academic affairs at the California State University – the position he held just before coming to Maine – he drove more than an hour each way in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Bounding up the stairs of Chadbourne Hall, Hoff stopped first at the New Media & Internet Technologies laboratory.

“Today’s your lucky day!” he said with a grin to the students sitting at their computers, who most likely had no idea who he was.

Downstairs in the admissions office he perused the “sign-in” book, which contains the names of prospective students who recently visited the campus.

“They’re from all over – Massachusetts, Florida, Minnesota, New York,” he said happily.

A startled work-study student looked up from behind her desk as the president burst through the door of the Division of Lifelong Learning.

“Hi, I’m Peter Hoff!” he said, offering a handshake to the perplexed young woman.

Hoff’s list of “things to do” grows longer as he continues out through a parking lot and notices a ticket tucked underneath a windshield wiper.

Finding a solution to UM’s perennial parking problem needs to be included in the list of priorities he talked about during his State of the University address in October, he said.

Some of his other priorities include:

. Emphasizing majors like computer science, computer engineering and educational technology that specifically prepare “needed professionals”;

. Strengthening graduate education while continuing to push for research and development;

. Developing “a partnership” with kindergarten-through-grade-12 education;

. Increasing diversity and creating a task force to study how more women can be attracted, promoted and retained as administrators.

Determined to achieve “measurable progress” on his goals, Hoff said, “I can’t just give a nice speech once a year and expect to make a difference.”

The critics

Fielding criticism is part of life for college presidents.

Hoff laughs about the complaints he elicits even for his most innocuous statements.

After he praised the sound of the campus’ clarion bells during a speech, a faculty member complained to him that the ringing interfered with teaching.

Another time, someone took him to task for commenting favorably on the day’s clear, sunny weather when Maine was experiencing a drought.

Some complaints are more serious, however.

Marquita Hill, professor of chemical engineering, said the president hasn’t been vocal enough as public spokesman for the campus’ energy conservation and efficiency campaign. Recycling is way down.

And professor McClymersaid Hoff has stopped talking, “at least in public,” about increasing faculty salaries.

An old complaint – the number of women in top posts – continues to be a sticking point.

Sharon Barker, director of the Women’s Resource Center, said Hoff deserves credit for trying to get women into more leadership positions on campus, but “there’s still a ways to go.”

A snapshot of the Hoff years shows mostly positive trends for women on campus. Figures provided by UM’s Office of Equal Opportunity show there are 25 female full professors compared to 17 five years ago, and 60 assistant professors, up from 29. On the other hand, the number of female associate professors has dropped from 43 to 42.

In January, when newly appointed chief financial officer Janet Waldron comes on board, the 16-member President’s Cabinet will include seven women. But there are no female vice presidents or deans.

“I think we’ve done a good job with hiring women … but more attention needs to be made in retention and promotion,” said Barker.

“If you look over time … women are less apt to stay and less apt to be promoted,” she said, noting that upper administration continually has more males.

The goal is to keep women at the same rate as men, she said. “There shouldn’t be a difference by gender in either promotion or retention of talented administrators.”

Answering the critics

Hoff set out to answer some of the criticism during a recent interview.

A scholar who earned his doctorate in English and the humanities, he insisted he supports research done by professors in every discipline, not just science and engineering.

“I have always been one of the most vocal people on campus in pointing out that research means a lot more than just funded research, and [in] seeking ways to reward and encourage all kinds of research and creative activity by our faculty, ” he said.

One of his “deepest concerns” is that he hasn’t been as successful as he would have liked in making the campus more diverse racially, he said.

While most universities aspire to be as diverse as the state itself, UM is about twice as diverse as Maine’s population as a whole. “Yet it’s not enough for us.”

Hoff acknowledges the challenge of striking a balance between delegating authority and remaining in touch with the day-to-day activities at the campus.

“I try to focus on matters that are truly strategic, and delegate the ones that are tactical. Nevertheless I find myself involved in details for a variety of reasons each day – usually because they are very important details and the problem is not getting solved at another level,” he said.

One way he stays accessible to faculty and staff each month is by holding an “open office hour that anyone can take part in,” he said.

Salary increases for faculty are a high priority, Hoff said. But “one huge problem” is that UM must negotiate salaries through the University of Maine System. And while UM faculty salaries are higher than those at other campuses in the system, they are low compared to those at the other New England land grant universities.

Hoff said he’s been pleased by his fund-raising efforts. “Each week, month in and month out, I sit down to thank people for their new gifts. Only if you sit at my desk … can you get a feeling for how much is coming into the university from private sources,” he said.

“The overall picture for private fund raising has been very good,” said Jeff Mills, vice president for university advancement.

During Hoff’s tenure, $12 million more in private gifts has been raised than during the previous five years, Mills said.

Although he tries to stay attuned to people’s wants and needs, Hoff said, he can’t allow others’ praise or disapproval to drive his decisions.

“I am thinking about what I believe is best for the university. In the final analysis, that is what matters far more than what people think of me,” he said.