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The Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon will hold an emergency meeting today, April 14, to discuss the selection of a new university president.

The meeting will be held at 12:30 p.m. in Room 403 of the Ford Alumni Center and is open to the public.

A press conference will be held in the alumni center lobby immediately following the board meeting. The press conference will be broadcast via the Web on the UO Channel,  http://media.uoregon.edu/channel/.

A search committee, aided by a broad-based advisory committee, has been identifying and narrowing a list of candidates for almost six months.

The new president will be the 18th person to lead the university since its founding.

Under the new governance system that took effect last year, the UO Board of Trustees has the sole authority to hire a new university president. The board also negotiates with the candidate on pay and other terms of an employment contract.

The search committee has held five campus and community forums and conducted an online survey to help shape the search effort and identify the candidates who would best serve the university. Over the past two months the committee narrowed a large pool of candidates down a group of 10 individuals.

After interviewing those candidates, the committee chose four finalists to be considered by the full UO Board of Trustees.