The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees, in conjunction with the President Search Committee, is encouraging the UMass community to attend an open forum addressing the search for the next president of the UMass system.

The Amherst campus will host its open forum today at 3 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom.

The purpose of the open forum is to allow students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and all other interested constituents of the UMass community an opportunity to lend their voices to the search for a new university president.

Those who attend the forum are asked to consider three questions: What are the most important challenges and opportunities facing the new president; what kind of person is best prepared to address these challenges and opportunities; and what kind of experience, management style and other characteristics and traits would the ideal candidate possess?

R. William Funk, the national managing director of Korn/Ferry International, will moderate the forum. Korn/Ferry International is the executive search firm hired by the University to aid in the process.

The University Board of Trustees appointed the 28 members of the President Search Committee on Aug. 28. The committee consists of Board of Trustees members, University of Massachusetts faculty, alumni, staff, students and community leaders. The committee is co-chaired by Diane Bissonnette Moes, an attorney with Donoghue Barrett ‘ Singal, and Dennis Austin, the director of state government relations with the Raytheon Company. Both are UMass alumni and serve on the Board of Trustees.

The five-campus University of Massachusetts system has been without a president since the resignation of William M. Bulger on Sept. 1. Bulger held the post since January of 1996.

Currently mired in a budget crisis, the University of Massachusetts system has come under fire by Governor Mitt Romney, who, as part of his administration’s 2004 fiscal budget proposal, sought to eliminate the president’s office while also privatizing the Amherst campus in an effort he said would improve the system’s efficiency. The bid was rejected by the Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee and did not make the final budget.

Nonetheless, the University of Massachusetts system eventually received an $80 million budget cut.

The Amherst campus will be the first stop in a three-day tour of open forums, which will be held until Oct. 2.

On the net: www.massachusetts.edu.