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BATHURST
Home > Regional News > Bathurst
Long-serving CSU Head of School retires
24 Jun 2009
 After 35 years at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst and its predecessor institution Mitchell College of Advanced Education (MCAE), Associate Professor Leonora Ritter, Head of the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies, will retire on Wednesday 1 July. Professor Anthony Cahalan, Dean of Faculty of Arts at CSU, said following her appointment to an academic position at MCAE in 1974, Professor Ritter has gone on to make an extraordinary contribution to the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies and to CSU. “Leonora has been Head of School for the past six years and has chaired and served on numerous committees at all levels of the institution. In every role, her commitment to her students, staff and colleagues has been generous and exemplary. We wish her all the very best in her retirement, and look forward to maintaining Charles Sturt University's association with her in her role as mentor on a number of significant projects in the future,” Professor Cahalan said. Professor Ritter will be farewelled by colleagues at an afternoon tea on Thursday 25 June.
Media Note: Contact CSU Media to arrange interviews. Print this story Social inclusion for low paid workers
23 Jun 2009
 The idea that employment automatically leads to personal well-being and social inclusion is being questioned by a Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher. In an address to the 2009 Social Inclusion Forum in Melbourne on Thursday 25 June, Dr Helen Masterman-Smith will question what, if anything, the Federal Government’s Social Inclusion Agenda (SIA) has done to address the kinds of barriers that low paid workers encounter. “Labour market participation is a cornerstone of the whole-of-government approach that the Commonwealth is developing to improve social inclusion. However, its SIA recognises that low pay and poor job quality often derail this key objective.” A sociology lecturer and co-author of the book Living Low Paid, Dr Masterman-Smith says the difficulties of ‘making work pay’ at the bottom end of the labour market is a social inclusion challenge that has yet to receive the policy or public attention it warrants. She will also comment on whether the Australian labour market and economy can actually deliver a ‘just transition’ to a low-carbon economy, through the Emissions Trading Scheme, or whether such a transition will simply reproduce current labour market inequalities.
Media Note: Dr Helen Masterman-Smith is a sociology lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU at Wagga Wagga. She will speak at Melbourne University’s 2009 Social Inclusion Forum, to be held on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 June. Dr Masterman-Smith will present a seminar titled Labour force participation: when employment doesn’t lead to inclusion. Is the SIA likely to improve the current situation or simply perpetuate it? Her book, co-authored with Ms Barbara Pocock, Living Low Paid: The dark side of prosperous Australia was published by Allen & Unwin in 2008.
Print this story State pharmacy award for student
23 Jun 2009
 A pharmacy student at Charles Sturt University (CSU) has been named the NSW Pharmacy Student of Year by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA). Mr Lloyd Smith was named the winner in Sydney on Saturday 13 June during a pharmacy expo hosted by the PSA. Sponsored by the company Alphapharm, the competition tests the communication and counselling skills of final year pharmacy students. Mr Smith will now compete for the national title of Pharmacy Student of the Year during the PSA’s annual Pharmacy Australia Congress in Sydney from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 October. Mr Smith, from Broken Hill, is in his fourth year of Bachelor Pharmacy at CSU at Wagga Wagga. He is also the Head Resident of the Halls of Residence at the University’s South Campus in Wagga Wagga and involved in a number of student organisations including the Pharmers’ Society and rural health club, WARRIAHS. “Lloyd represents all that is great about pharmacy students at CSU beyond their academic achievements. Lloyd has good communication and leadership skills, a commitment to the community in which he lives and a burning desire to serve the profession well in regional NSW,” said Associate Professor Lyn Angel, Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences.
Media Note: Pharmacy student Mr Lloyd Smith is available for interview.
Print this story Calling future robotic engineers
23 Jun 2009
Lecturers and PhD students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) will judge the 2009 RoboCup Junior Central West competition at Dubbo Christian School on Thursday 25 June. They will also offer technical advice to school students and their teachers at the event. Associate lecturer and PhD student Mr Allen Benter, from the School of Accounting and Computer Science at CSU at Bathurst, said RoboCup Junior is aimed at primary to secondary school children and introduces students to the international RoboCup World Championship. “RoboCup Junior focuses not only on engineering and computing skills, but also emphasises sportsmanship, teamwork, cooperation and organisational skills. The participants must construct and program a robot to compete in one of three events; Dance, Rescue or Soccer. The winners of the regional competition then advance to the state competition,” said Mr Benter, who is a PhD student with the Newcrest Mining Research Laboratory at the Universty’s Centre for Research in Complex Systems (CRiCS).
Media Note: Contact CSU Media to arrange interviews. Other CSU School of Accounting and Computer Science staff attending will be Dr Michael Antolovich, Dr Richard Xu and PhD student Mr Dwaine Bailey. They will demonstrate current CSU research in computer vision, robotics and gaming technologies and will highlight the research and teaching facilities at CSU at Bathurst. RoboCup is an international competition and conference promoting artificial intelligence and robotic research around the world.
Print this story Land and water researchers consider Murray Darling Basin
16 Jun 2009
 Researchers from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute of Land, Water and Society (ILWS) will meet at Wagga Wagga for two days this week to focus on setting a research agenda to tackle the big issues facing the Murray Darling Basin. Institute Director Professor Max Finlayson said, “the inaugural forum is aimed at addressing the issues which are really challenging Australians in this region, such as learning to live with climate change and ensuring we maintain healthy people, communities and landscapes.” Around 70 CSU researchers based across the University will attend the forum and talk about environmental issues including restoring and sustaining our wetlands and valuing ecosystem services. Social researchers will focus on areas such as the future for regional natural resource management, human wellbeing and healthy communities, and developing regional business enterprise. “It is important to get our researchers into one room to sit together and focus on the big issues at hand. We are all doing individual research projects but the old adage that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ rings true,” Professor Finlayson said.
Media Note: The ILWS Research Forum will be held on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 June at the Wine and Food Industry Training Centre, building 412 near car park 11, McKeown Drive at CSU at Wagga Wagga. Professor Max Finlayson is available for interview on Wednesday 17 June from 10.40am. Contact CSU Media.
Print this story Australian agriculture for primary school students
16 Jun 2009
 The Head of the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Associate Professor John Kent has been named as one of the founding board members of the Primary Industries Education Foundation. The focus of the new Foundation will be on school children and encouraging them to learn more about primary industries. It will deliver educational services to schools such as a web portal of educational resources on primary industries, advice on professional development for teachers and information on career paths in primary industries. The principal of NSW Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) Tocal College, Mr Cameron Archer is the inaugural chairman. Associate Professor Kent is a member of the interim board as a representative of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture. He has over 30 years experience in agricultural education both in Australia and overseas and is a member of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a collaborative alliance between CSU and DPI.
Print this story Semester break spent in UK
16 Jun 2009
 A Charles Sturt University (CSU) primary teacher student is looking forward to the end of semester break in July for more than one reason. Ms Emma Wagner is one of 19 students from across Australia and New Zealand selected for a fortnight long trip to the United Kingdom (UK). The company, My Overseas Experience or myOE has awarded a scholarship to the CSU student after she expressed her desire for international experience in her winning video. The inaugural myOE university tour will take in locations including London, Brighton, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bath and Stonehenge. Ms Wagner, from Sydney, hopes to complete her Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree in 2009 through the School of Teacher Education at CSU at Bathurst. “I am looking forward to the trip and the chance it will give me to get a taste of life overseas as I would like to eventually teach in the UK,” said Ms Wagner.
Media Note: MyOE is a company which offers services to travelling professionals. CSU student Ms Emma Wagner’s awarding winning video can be found here. She will leave Sydney on the myOE university tour on Saturday 4 July and return to CSU at the start of the new semester Monday 27 July. In 2009, CSU launched CSU Global to support its students obtain international experience during their university study. Print this story Mensheds Australia conference at CSU
16 Jun 2009
Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst will host the first national Mensheds Australia conference on 16, 17 and 18 June. CSU is the major sponsor of the conference which has the theme ‘Sustaining your Menshed’. Dr Pat Bradbery, Director of the Professional Development Unit in the CSU Faculty of Business, said this is the first-ever national conference for Mensheds Australia participants, with about 70 indigenous and non-indigenous men attending from all over Australia. “The Mensheds movement is relatively new, has grown rapidly to about 300 individual Menshed groups/locations, and has a strong focus on educational development. The conference will include a half-day workshop to consider the CSU-TAFE education initiative developed for Mensheds, and CSU looks forward to building a relationship with Mensheds Australia into the future,” Dr Bradbery said. Conference participants will be welcomed to Bathurst by Mr Greg Westman, a Bathurst Regional Councillor, and to CSU by the Head of Campus, Mr Col Sharp.
Media Note: Contact CSU Media to arrange interviews. The first day of the conference (Tuesday 16 June) will be held in the Mansfield Building (C2), and the next two days (Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 June) will be at the Centre for Professional Development (S17). Print this story Walk in our shoes
09 Jun 2009
People with communication problems resulting from neurological impairment who have been employed to tutor small groups of speech pathology students will be thanked at a ceremony at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Wednesday 10 June. Employed by the University’s speech pathology program to tutor the third year students for 18 hours over six weeks, the client-tutor program helps the students catch a glimpse of their clients’ worlds. The tutors teach the CSU students about what it is like to live each day with communication problems resulting from such conditions as stroke or traumatic brain injury. The tutors also discussed the experiences of their family members; their experiences of therapy and of the health service in general; and their experiences of community attitudes towards their disability. The ceremony will include short presentations by the five student groups about their experiences with their tutors. This event will be held at 3pm on 10 June, in the Sloshed Cod, CSU Albury City site, off Olive St, Albury.
Media Note: For interviews with client-tutors and students in the speech pathology program, contact CSU Media. The students are studying a Bachelor of Health Science (Speech Pathology) through the School of Community Health at CSU at Albury-Wodonga.
Print this story Six stars celebrated
09 Jun 2009
 Charles Sturt University (CSU) will celebrate the award of six green stars and ‘world leader’ status for environmentally sustainable features to a new building on its Thurgoona site. The Academic Accommodation Stage 3 (AA3) office building has received “a six star Green Star ‘World Leader’ certified rating under Office Design v2” from the national Green Building Council of Australia. Staff from the AA3 building, which is home to the academic staff and students of CSU’s School of Business and Information Technology, will be on hand celebrate the award at a morning tea at 10am on Monday 15 June. “The principles used in buildings at Thurgoona demonstrate a comprehensive, environmentally sensitive process that spans from site planning to selection of materials,” said Executive Director of the University’s Division of Facilities Management, Mr Stephen Butt. Innovative aspects of the building that receive special mention include reduced carbon dioxide production and energy consumption by 65 per cent, and the world’s first use of phase-changing materials in the concrete floor to reduce heating and cooling used in the building.
Media Note: Interviews and photo opportunities at the celebration will be available from 10am on Monday 15 June at the AA3 building, CSU Thurgoona site, off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona. More information on the building is available here. Print this story |
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