Chapel Hill, N.C. — The UNC Board of Governors on Thursday established its process for selecting the successor to University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles, who said last month that he would retire by the end of the year.

The board has split the search process among three committees.

One will solicit public input and draw up a statement for what UNC is looking for in its next president. The second will hire a consultant to perform a nationwide search and will screen candidates to narrow the pool. The third will set salary and benefits parameters for the new president and will select the finalists for the entire board to review.

Five chancellors, including UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp, and the chairman of the trustees of nine UNC campuses will serve on the 25-member committee to solicit public input. The other two committees include only members of the Board of Governors.

No timetable for the search was set.

Bowles was named UNC president in January 2006, and he said last month that he had always planned to stay in the position for no more than five years.

He recently was named co-chairman of a bipartisan panel that President Barack Obama wants to devise plans to rein in federal deficits.