After rejecting three presidential candidates who weren't a good fit for San Jose State, trustees will now consider a pair of veteran administrators who have spent more than a decade in the classroom, who know how to trim budgets and plan for the future -- and who happen to be immigrants.

Paul Yu, 62, president of the Brockport campus of the State University of New York College, and Richard S. Jarvis, 55, the outgoing chancellor of the Oregon University System, will be in San Jose next week to meet with the community.

Tuesday's announcement begins a new round of matchmaking for the commuter campus of 28,000 since its first search for a president failed. California State University trustees last fall rejected the first group of finalists after concluding none was a good fit. The search process is confidential, and those who participate will not comment in any detail on why candidates are chosen as finalists.

San Jose State's new president would immediately have to confront at least $13.7 million in cutbacks and issues such as how to maintain academic and athletic programs on a shrinking budget.

Both finalists immigrated as young men to the United States -- Yu from China and Jarvis from England. And both entered academic administration after teaching for about a dozen years. Yu is a professor of philosophy, and Jarvis, who continues to teach at night, is a geography professor. Both have worked in multiple university systems.

``Each one of these outstanding candidates could provide solid leadership for San Jose State University,'' said Bill Hauck, the CSU trustee leading the presidential search committee. Trustees are scheduled to interview the candidates and make a selection April 19.

Interim President Joseph Crowley said he hopes to have made most of the decisions on dealing with the shortfall before his replacement arrives. Unlike San Francisco State University, which is considering such dramatic steps as closing its engineering school to cut spending, San Jose State does not expect to make similar moves, Provost Marshall Goodman said.

But some on campus want a faculty vote on whether the university can afford Division 1-A football. That controversial issue could land in the new president's lap.

Planning experience

Yu was unavailable for comment Tuesday. A spokesman said Yu would not give interviews until after his visit to San Jose State.

Yu's post at Brockport in New York's vast public university system is his first presidency. Since he took over in 1997, the university has engaged in an extensive strategic planning process -- something Crowley has recommended San Jose State do under a new president.

Compared to San Jose State, SUNY Brockport is a more traditional residential campus of 8,500 students. Under Yu, it has spent the past five years raising its academic ranking and now has more than 80 valedictorians and salutatorians among its students.

Before coming to Brockport, Yu was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Butler University in Indianapolis, a small private liberal arts college. He taught for nearly a decade at Central Michigan University before he was named an associate dean.

Grappling with cuts

Jarvis announced last month that he is stepping down as chancellor of the Oregon system in June after two years overseeing the state's public university campuses, a period that coincided with severe state funding cuts and numerous tuition increases. He said his departure is a mutual decision reached with the state's higher education board, which had announced plans to reorganize and downsize the chancellor's office in a political shake-up after the governor replaced the board.

``I could stay and handle a year of transition or go find another job,'' Jarvis said. Instead, he said, he resigned because the job would not be as interesting in a diminished chancellor's office.

He called himself ``a very serious candidate'' for the San Jose State presidency.

``I would like to get closer to a community,'' Jarvis said. ``I want to get back to a campus, and to me that means a big city, a diverse campus and a large university in the West, so there you are.''

Jarvis was Crowley's boss for several years while Crowley was president of the University of Nevada-Reno and Jarvis was chancellor, the top-ranking administrative position, of the University and Community College System of Nevada from 1994 to 1999.

This search avoided some of the public concerns about lack of diversity on the Bay Area search committee, particularly about Asian-American representation. Some additions to the group quieted those concerns.

Each candidate will speak and answer questions at an open forum from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. during their campus visits. The forum will be held in the Engineering Building, Room 189.

Yu will visit the university Tuesday and Jarvis on April 15.

``Both of these candidates are good candidates, and I'm excited they are coming to campus,'' said Scott Daugherty, a commercial real estate adviser and university alumnus who served on the presidential selection advisory committee. ``I hope the whole campus community will come out and be part of the process.''