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NEWS
| October 23, 2003
Presidential Search
Words to Lead By
A presidential finalist says he
takes on difficult tasks because he likes challenge.
By Danny
Woodward
The Shorthorn staff
The fascination of what’s difficult
Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent
Spontaneous joy and natural content
Out of my heart.
— “The Fascination of What’s Difficult,”
W.B. Yeats, 1916.
Peter Hoff says he lives by a poem.
It was written by W.B. Yeats almost 90 years ago, but it’s
Dr. Hoff’s mantra for life atop a cutting-edge university.
Hoff is president of the University of Maine, his state’s
flagship institution that nears the $100 million mark in research
expenditures, and a finalist for the top job here. His two-day visit
to campus began this morning.
And though Hoff, who’s also an English professor, isn’t
sure what to expect at UTA — with its budget woes and undersized
faculty and research initiatives — he said he’s not
one to shy from a tough job.
He remembers the poem.
“A lot of things catch my fancy because they’re difficult
— raising funds for your university, trying to get the
legislature or a governor on your side, doubling or tripling the
research money at your university,” he said. “I like
to tackle things just because they’re not easy to do.”
Hoff said in a 2002 speech that some believed the University of
Maine “did not have much of a future” when he took it
over in 1997 and that “the most pessimistic were using phrases
like ‘a dying university.’ ”
But during his six years in Maine, the student body’s average
SAT score jumped, the size of the entering class increased by 53
percent, the amount of research expenditures almost tripled and
more than $150 million went to construction or renovation of campus
buildings.
The dying university is now ranked Doctoral-Research Extensive,
the highest echelon by the Carnegie Institute.
A Maine administrator credits Hoff.
“I would just say that it’s been a great time period
for the university, sort of a renaissance time period,” said
Jeff Mills, Maine’s vice president for university advancement.
“The biggest thing is that he’s been really good at
having a sense of what the university should be heading toward.
He’s been a very strong leader with a good vision.”
Hoff said his vision for a university — be it Maine or UTA
— is a focus on excellence in everything. That is how he lives
his life, said a close acquaintance.
“What drives him is the pursuit of excellence, no question,”
said Colleen Quint, the executive director of the Mitchell Institute,
an endowment program serving Maine college students. Hoff is on
the board of directors for the institute.
“He’s been a very powerful and effective leader for
the University of Maine,” Quint said. “He’s kind
of held the standard high. He’s a very bright and intense
thinker, but he’s got a relatively easy way about him. His
brain is always going and you can see that. He’s very articulate
and holds education to a high standard.”
That’s because Hoff said education is a passion. He discovered
a love of learning while a college student in Wisconsin, he said.
It was some time later that he discovered his calling.
“When I became a president, I really found what I wanted to
do when I grew up,” he said. “I have really enjoyed
the role as president.”
Because he loves it, he has stuck with it. Hoff’s six years
at Maine is the longest tenure of any president there in 30 years.
That’s important to him, he said, because a university can’t
raise funds, recruit students or construct buildings without stable
leadership.
Hoff stresses the plurality of leadership.
“It takes a lot of people,” he said. “For research,
a lot [of help comes from] state funding. I’ve never seen
a state really get on board the way Maine has. It takes a good research
vice president and a good provost.”
And those around Hoff said what they say matters.
“He’s very good at setting out where we need to be going,
hiring good people and giving them the authority they need,”
Dr. Mills said. “He’s involved in it all the way, but
he’s empowering to the people. There’s really a balancing
piece to it.”
“The
Fascination of What's Difficult”
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| Peter
hoff
Position: President, University
of Maine
Age: 59
Notable:
• Earned his bachelor’s degree with honors
in English from the University of Wisconsin in 1966
• Named one of 26 “Shapers of Our Future
2000” by Converge magazine for his use of technology
in the education
• Has played the French horn in three symphonies
• Has studied abroad eight times in 29 nations
on two continents
Pere
Hoff's Campus Schedule
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