From opposite sides of the country, two men who immigrated to the United States and share a passion for public higher education will cross career paths this week as they try on the job of president of San Jose State University.

The stakes for the university are high. One search already failed when none of the three finalists was judged a good match. And a respected interim president, who stayed on longer than he had planned, is set to leave at the end of May.

The two new candidates will arrive on the campus from vastly different circumstances.

Paul Yu, 62, who visits Tuesday, is president of the State University of New York College at Brockport, a rural campus of 8,500 students that has transformed itself by raising academic standards during nearly seven years with Yu at the helm.

Richard S. Jarvis, 55, who visits campus Thursday, resigned March 31 as chancellor of the seven-campus Oregon University System, which serves 80,000 students. Before Jarvis quit, the governor had dismissed most of the governing board that hired him and signaled plans to downsize the chancellor's office. Jarvis' tenure as head of Oregon's university system coincided with the greatest loss of revenue the state has suffered since the 1930s.