Members of the Faculty Senate reported at last night's meeting about the characteristics they are looking for in the next university president.

Joel Cuello, senate representative for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said many faculty members within the college would like the next UA president to focus on the loss of faculty, or "brain drain" the UA is facing.

John Ulreich, representative for the College of Humanities, said College of Humanities faculty want a UA president who has a commitment of shared governance, inclusiveness of diversity and support for graduate education.

Ulreich said he also hopes practices will be in place to assure that the presidential candidate's "track record matches the package they're presenting."

Other college representatives at the meeting said faculty would like a president who supports international efforts and research, has a passion for education and research, supports and respects the role of liberal arts at the university, is an effective fundraiser and would be willing to do the job for less than $1 million per year.

Other members expressed the desire to have a president who is willing to be evaluated by faculty members on their job performance.

Wanda Howell, senate chairwoman, said the recommendations will continue to be collected from faculty and then ranked in order of importance.

Howell said she wants to be able to present presidential candidates with a list of seven characteristics that the senate deems as the most important.

"The goal is send it to the final candidates so they can have a clear vision of the expectations of the Faculty Senate," Howell said.

Museum studies, women's studies certificates approved

The senate approved the addition of a museum studies graduate certificate and a women's studies graduate certificate.

The museum studies graduate certificate targets art history graduate students who wish to "merge their advanced history studies with a particular interest in institutional history, museological theory, and archival and curatorial practices," according to the certificate description.

The women's studies graduate certificate should provide students and community members with recognition of their work in feminist studies, according to the certificate description.

Two other certificate proposals, in optical sciences and geographic information science, were postponed until the senate learns the nature of whether courses taken to complete the certificate can later count toward a master's of science, said Senate Vice Chairman Robert Mitchell.

Certificate programs at the university are not new, but seem to be increasing exponentially as community demand grows, Mitchell said.

"They're a way for academic units to serve the community for people who don't want to pursue a degree," Mitchell said.

Certificate programs make money for departments and serve the needs of the community, Mitchell said.

Faculty Senate approves 'visitors in the workplace' policy

The senate also approved a policy on "visitors in the workplace" for the department of human resources.

The policy was created by the department after faculty had complaints of other faculty whose children were disruptive in the workplace.

The policy allows for emergency situations, which may require faculty to have their children in the workplace, but aims to keep the occurrence of faculty members' children in the workplace to a minimum, according to the policy.

Senate members supported the mission to improve safety of the policy, but expressed concern about the fact that no child care service is available to faculty, staff and students on campus.

"I continue to be amazed that we cannot pull off a day care on campus," said College of Humanities representative Roxanne Mountford.

Another senator said the policy was faculty friendly, but not family friendly.

Members of the senate resolved to explore the possibility of providing child care on campus.