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ORANGE
Home > Regional News > Orange
CSU helping to overcome local government skills shortage
17 Jul 2007
Charles Sturt University (CSU) is working with the combined Central NSW Councils (CENTROC) to offset skill shortages affecting local government. CSU has offered flexible education programs and additional support to local government staff in target areas such as management, information technology, business, finance, human resources, tourism and marketing. Pat Bradbery, Manager of the Professional Development Unit in the School of Management and Marketing at CSU Bathurst, says a residential school at CSU Dubbo, planned for February 2008, will help the prospective students to “kick-start their study and networking. It will provide access to advanced technology, lecturers and other learning skills support staff”. Mr Bradbery says that CSU already runs a “highly successful postgraduate week-long residential program in Bathurst for local government finance professionals, and the Bachelor of Management provided through the Orange Campus is very well suited to the local government sector. We are in an excellent position to help CENTROC overcome its skills shortage.”
Media Note: Pat Bradbery is available for interviews, contact CSU Media.
Print this story CSU’s champion Hockey team
17 Jul 2007
Earlier this month, Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Women’s Hockey team picked up a gold medal at the inaugural East Coast Challenge University Games. CSU’s Men’s Hockey won silver despite being a man down for most of the competition, while the Men’s Water Polo team came away with bronze. Nik Granger, a student support officer, said this was the first time CSU had competed as one university with a team of 70 students representing Albury, Wagga Wagga, Bathurst and Dubbo campuses. “Overall, seeing as we had such a small team, the atmosphere was fantastic,” he said. CSU also had first year distance education Master of Applied Science (Library and Information Management) student Lisa Matuzelis competing in the Australian University Championships for Surfing at the Gold Coast. She came away with silver and bronze and a typically laconic surfer attitude: “I would have liked to have come first, but I’m pretty happy with the result. I can’t complain,” she said.
Media Note: CSU also had fielded Ultimate Frisbee and touch teams at the East Coast Challenge University Games. Nik Granger and Lisa Matuzelis are available for interviews, contact CSU Media Print this story A journal for a brave new world
10 Jul 2007
 Will nano-technology save the world or spell the end of civilisation? Professor John Weckert of Charles Sturt University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics says as well as those two groups of people with diametrically opposed view of this new technology, there is also a third viewpoint: “These voices are trying to get the arguments into perspective so that the technology can be used in ways that are most beneficial.” Professor Weckert is the editor-in-chief of a new journal, NanoEthics. “It was thought that now is a good time to set up an academic journal that can be a forum for serious discussion of these issues,” said Professor Weckert. He says the journal is aimed at academics, philosophers, ethicists, policy makers and “people involved in regulation, many of whom are lawyers. It is very much a cross-disciplinary journal.”
Media Note: Professor John Weckert is available for interviews. NanoEthics on line can be seen here. For more on the John Weckert’s views on the controversial field of nano-technology, especially human enhancement, see here. Print this story Improving Aboriginal mental health
10 Jul 2007
 Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Djirruwang Program Bachelor of Health Science (Mental Health) aims to create a critical mass of highly skilled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners to deal with mental health problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This innovative program has been acknowledged by the NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Mental Health) the Hon. Paul Lynch, who described is as a “significant commitment” by CSU. Mr Lynch’s comments came during the official launch of the NSW Aboriginal Mental Health and Well Being Policy 2006-2010 last week on CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus. “The Djirruwang Program meets the national practice standards of the mental health workforce, making Charles Sturt University the first university course to use nationally agreed practice standards in mental health,” he said.
Media Note: Contact CSU Media for interviews. Print this story CSU's Churchill Fellow
10 Jul 2007
 A Charles Sturt University PhD student, Debra Dunstan, has received a prestigious Churchill Fellowship which will allow her to travel to Canada and the United Kingdom. Her PhD examined intervention for pain related to work disability. Using WorkCover NSW guidelines, she developed a rural program to successfully move worker’s compensation recipients back to work. “Typically people are only treated in major metropolitan areas. This model turned out to be very effective. We had significant outcomes.” The Churchill Fellowship will allow her to travel to Canada to examine similar models, as well as the United Kingdom where the idea has been expanded to successfully move social security beneficiaries into work. “I hope to be able to work with governments to develop a community based treatment for people who are on disability support pensions, and that fits in with the Australian government’s Welfare to Work program.” Debra says of the Fellowship, “I was overwhelmed really, it is an honour and a privilege and a very exciting opportunity.”
Media Note: A Churchill Fellowship gives the recipient the opportunity, through financial support, to travel overseas to undertake an analysis, study or investigation of a project or an issue that cannot be readily undertaken in Australia. Currently the average Fellowship is worth $25 000. Debra Dunstan is available for interviews, contact CSU Media. Print this story Are communities ready for development challenges?
10 Jul 2007
 A senior Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic has used an international forum to argue for the expansion of community development in the Asia Pacific region to tackle major socio-economic problems such as extreme poverty, lack of education, and environmental unsustainability. Professor Manohar Pawar of the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences was a main speaker at the International Association for Community Development conference. “Many countries policies suggest that those people and institutions with most influence, referred to as ‘top down’, are poised to develop communities at all levels. The capacity of ordinary communities need to be developed to match the ‘top downs’ readiness,” said Professor Pawar. “It is a challenging but not impossible task. If we sincerely search, I believe we will find answers to these challenges within the diversity of the region.”
Media Note: The International Association for Community Development biennial conference was held at Hong Kong’s City University in China. Contact CSU Media for interviews. Print this story The "jewel in the crown"
10 Jul 2007
 “The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Art Collection will benefit enormously by the inclusion of this definitive painting by John Peart. It an exceptional example of the artist’s work, that will serve as an integral part of their collection for generations to come,” says art valuer Randi Linnegar from King Street Galleries in Sydney. She was commenting on an artwork gift to CSU of an abstract painting, Muffled Rhythms 1984. CSU Art Curator Thomas Middlemost describes the “very large and important painting from a significant Sydney artist” as an “an intensely challenging artwork, which reflects the artist’s difficult path in the Australian art world. Muffled Rhythms, 1984 will exist as a ‘jewel in the crown’ of the University’s collection, which includes monotypes by Peart and paintings by James Gleeson, Emily Kngwarreye, to name a couple. The donation of this work will increase the standing of our important, nationally renowned art collection.”
Media Note: The John Peart abstract polymer emulsion on canvas painting Muffled Rhythms 1984 was gift to the CSU Art Collection under the Federal Cultural Gifts Scheme. For more information, contact CSU Media. Print this story NWGIC international quality accreditation
03 Jul 2007
 Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC) has been awarded much sought after international quality accreditation. The NWGIC, located at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, implemented a quality management system for its research activities in 2006. Following an external review and audit in June 2007, the Centre was awarded accreditation for its implementation of the ISO 9000 Quality Management System. This achievement, driven by Mrs Helen Pan (NWGIC), Mr Chris O'Connell (NSW DPI), Professor Geoff Scollary (CSU), and Mrs Cathy Campbell (NSW DPI), reinforces the NWGIC’s place at the forefront of Australian research facilities. Director of the NWGIC Professor Thomas Henick-Kling says the quality accreditation is a wonderful achievement and shows a commitment to quality. The NWGIC is the home of leading wine industry research activities including the Winegrowing Futures Program.
Media Note: International Organization for Standardisation’s (ISO) purpose is to facilitate international trade by providing a single set of standards that people everywhere would recognize and respect. Contact CSU Media for interviews. Print this story Bless me, Father, for I have tilled
03 Jul 2007
 What does religion have to do with farming – and vice versa? Quite a lot, according to Dr Judith Crockett, lecturer in social sustainability at the Orange Campus of Charles Sturt University. She identified three distinct groups of farming families: the non-religious, the religious – who make occasional trips to church, often for social reasons, and Christian, whose “whole lives are permeated by their Christian beliefs and values”. These families tend to exhibit quite distinct gender and family relationships, have fewer problems with “succession planning” - the transfer of the farm between generations – and, “many are very progressive sustainable managers of land, very involved in Landcare as well as broader community activities,” said Dr Crockett. “That is because they see themselves as caretakers of the land rather than the owners of it.”
Media Note: Dr Judith Crockett interviewed farming families in three rural communities in the Central West of New South Wales as part of her PhD research. She will speak on Religion in rural NSW at the All Saints’ Cathedral Forum on Wednesday 11 July at 12.30 pm and is available for interviews, contact CSU Media. Print this story CSU Dubbo nursing student heads to Japan
03 Jul 2007
Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) affiliation with the Ajisai Nursing College (ANC) in Minokamo in Japan will be further enhanced when Sally Ellis, a Bachelor of Nursing student at CSU Dubbo, visits Kizawa Memorial Hospital and the ANC this month. For ten years now, Japanese students who have completed ANC’s three-year nursing diploma have been able to undertake a conversion degree to a full Bachelor of Health Science (Nursing) at CSU, which includes clinical placements at Dubbo Base and Lourdes Hospital. Ms Ellis says she wants to “develop an insight into transcultural nursing and Asian culture”, and will look at “health care delivery for the older person, and community care”. She has also been invited to observe at an open-heart operation. CSU has committed $2 000 to Ms Ellis’s trip. “It wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the support of CSU,” she said. Heather Bell, Manager of Campus Services at CSU Dubbo, said, “This is a great example of the University providing support to students to internationalise their degree.”
Media Note: Sally Ellis flies out of Australia on 8 July, and until then is available for interviews, contact CSU Media. For more on the affiliation with the Ajisai Nursing College, see here. Print this story |
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