Hoff, who has been a professor at UMaine for 12 years, said she wants to pursue an administrative role at the university level, but has not been able to find the right opportunity at UMaine. She said a lack of department chairs in the College of Education, which can springboard into administrative positions, was a roadblock to her desire to get hired to such a job.

“My area is leadership and I have been interested in moving into an administrative position at UMaine, but the right opportunity wasn’t presenting itself … and I felt I should explore other options,” Hoff said.

Judy Kuhns-Hastings will replace Hoff as president of Faculty Senate. According to Hoff, her term was going to end in 2009 and her departure hasn’t changed who was going to replace her and when.

The new president will have her own voice, said Vice President of Student Affairs Robert Dana, who believes Hoff will keep in touch with Kuhns-Hastings and UMaine.

“It’ll have an impact,” Dana said, “Doctor Hoff brought a real energy to UMaine.”

The College of Education and Human Development does not have department chairs because of the nature of its departments, said Dean Anne Pooler. She said Hoff is particularly good at helping doctoral students and works very hard. Pooler added the college is currently seeking to restructure itself and possibly implement department chairs, but currently some departments have as few as three professors and therefore have no need of a chair.

“Most of the colleges in the university have department chairs. That kind of a role gets a person really good at administrative experience, Hoff said. “Our college does not have department chairs, and so when there have been job opportunities, the criteria for the job might say, ‘Well you might have at least been a department chair.’ One of the problems was not only did I not see anything that looked like it was going to happen here, but I was not gaining the kind of experience that I needed to stay competitive in job searches in the future.”

Hoff requested leave from UMaine in the hopes of gaining the experience she needed and returning in a year, but her request was turned down – likely because of financial reasons, according to Hoff. She also suggested unpaid leave, partial retirement and a visiting professor status as alternatives, but those were similarly turned down.

“I was disappointed, I won’t lie about that,” Hoff said. “A year from now I thought things might change around at UMaine, or just that maybe I would want to come back here and contribute in some way.”

Hoff said her advisees will transition to a new advisor and that she will continue to give course advice. Pooler said she is unsure whether Hoff will be replaced in the college.

Hoff was previously an elementary school principal in California and has lived in Georgia in the past. She said she is excited to return but is sorry to leave UMaine.

“Her students will miss her, but I know that she’ll be in a position to finish up with her current graduate students,” Dana said. “She loves the University of Maine so it’s bittersweet, I would call it.”

Hoff was awarded the 2008-09 Outstanding Teacher Award in the spring of 2009 for her work at the university. She said she will continue to offer advice to Hastings and finish up her work with doctoral students and her research, as well as return every summer to teach an education law course.

A large apartment fire in Orono left 26 people, including 12 University of Maine students, homeless on Tuesday. The apartment contained a total of 18 units and was located in the middle of downtown Orono at the intersection of Bennoch Road and Main Street.

Bennoch Road, Forest Avenue, Main Street and Mill Street were blocked off and caution tape roped off the dangerous area surrounding the burning buildings. Firefighters from Orono, Old Town, Veazie and Bangor extinguished the flames with a large crowd of onlookers.

The fire was officially declared accidental after review by the state fire marshal’s office Thursday. Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, stated the source of the fire began in a wall and was “extremely difficult to detect.”

McCausland gave an overview of the state electrical inspector’s findings: “It was wiring in the first floor outlet that spread from that interior wall to the rest of building from apartment one,” McCausland said. “It’s been declared accidental. It was a major fire and they wanted a state electrical inspector to review the apartment. The building appears to be a total lost.”

According to a news release by McCausland, the fire was the result of an electrical problem in the building and has been ruled as accidental. The release said: “The fire started in an electrical outlet in a wall of a first floor apartment and then spread throughout the building. The cause of the fire came after an electrical inspector viewed the damage today.”

Angel Loredo, Associate Dean of Students at UMaine, said efforts are being made by the university to assist the 12 UMaine students who lived in the apartment building.

“We try to make sure the students are comfortable,” Loredo said. “We offered housing and meals on campus. We called people from the counseling center to help as well.”

The university had an invitatory sale of leftover beds and furniture that was opened up to the students of the fire to take anything they needed free of charge. A Black Bear Exchange account was also opened to help students replace books they lost in the fire.

Joe Carr, Director of University of Maine Relations, said university officials were present at the scene of the fire and that “the process is driven by what the students need”.

Carr said the university is encouraging people to make cash donations to the Red Cross.