A community partnership that marries social services and the environment will come to fruition next Wednesday 7 July between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the Albury-based Kalparrin community organisation that provides post school programs and respite services to people with a  disability. The agreement to be signed on Wednesday will see Kalparrin move to the University’s Thurgoona site to build a sustainable ‘farm park’ to include a hydrotherapy pool, interactive bird aviary and amphitheatre, which will also be available to the wider community. Head of CSU in Albury-Wodonga Professor Allan Curtis said CSU students, particularly those studying occupational therapy and physiotherapy, will work with and gain valuable insight into the needs and lives of individuals living with a disability. “Kalparrin was attracted to the sustainability focus of Charles Sturt University’s Thurgoona site, and we are keen to encourage involvement by community groups on the campus,” Professor Curtis said. Kalparrin provides opportunities for people with a disability to participate in recreation, leisure, skill development and respite activities.

The smell of exotic foods and the sights and sounds of dancing will headline Harmony Day being celebrated at Charles Sturt University (CSU) today, Tuesday 4 May. International student support officer Ms Lyn Furze has advised visitors to “throw away the vegemite sandwiches and try different food cooked by CSU’s international students”. CSU in Albury-Wodonga currently has international students from South Korea, Indonesia, China, Bhutan, Japan, the Solomon Islands and the United States. The event, which will include food stalls, dancing and martial arts demonstrations, will be held between 11am and 1pm at The Gums Café, off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona.

It’s a far cry from studying platypus on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River to Army Reserve training in the jungles of Malaysia, but a Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer is about to get a taste of what her environmental science (Honours) student has been experiencing in his training with the Army Reserve. Senior lecturer in veterinary microbiology, Dr Joanne Connolly, from the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga, will leave on Monday 15 December to spend five days with Rifle Company Butterworth, near Penang in northern Malaysia, at the invitation of the Defence Reserves Support.  Dr Connolly, who researches disease in platypus, will experience life as a soldier in the field, including weapons handling and finding food from the jungle, to gain insight into the Army Reserve. It’s an activity Dr Connolly didn’t know was on the horizon when she became Mr Tom Claridge’s supervisor for his Honours degree.  However, the academic is excited and a bit nervous about the challenge. “We’ve roughed it in streams late at night netting the nocturnal platypus across the Murrumbidgee catchment as part of the current research project, but this will certainly be a bit different. Tom has to write his thesis when he gets back from his three months service, so I’ll gently remind him about that when I see him in Malaysia,” Dr Connolly said.  

The world’s best caviar are eggs from the endangered sturgeon found in the Caspian Sea. These fish spawn in the Lower Volga wetlands of Russia, which are under threat from damage caused by the construction of hydro-electric dams, pollution, unorganised tourism, agriculture and expansion of the oil industry. Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Albury-Wodonga will host a delegation on Tuesday 8 December from the Russian region, which is visiting Australia as part of a study tour that is inspecting Australian wetlands and water management systems. The 12 visitors, involved with a five year project funded by the United Nations Development Program, will discuss the ongoing restoration of CSU’s wetlands on its Thurgoona site and relevant water ecology and management research projects with researchers from the University’s Institute of Land, Water and Society. They will also meet with the University’s new Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Sue Thomas.

Threats to inland frog species and conservation strategies will be on the agenda when the Declining Frog Working Group meets at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Albury-Wodonga on Monday 23 November. The independent advisory body is made up of policy makers, managers and scientists including CSU’s Dr Skye Wassens. The group meets three times a year to plan for the conservation and long-term management of Australia’s threatened frog fauna. Ecologist with CSU’s Institute of Land, Water and Society and meeting convenor, Dr Skye Wassens is currently looking at the breeding responses of frogs following changes in wetland flooding regimes along the Murray River. “Inland frogs are vulnerable to factors including habitat loss and degradation, exotic species, disease and climate change,” Dr Wassens said. “Coupled with these factors comes difficulty in finding frogs to actually study. Some species have very erratic activity patterns or live in remote areas or in large wetland systems which are difficult to survey. Cooperation between agencies like the Catchment Management Authorities, state government departments and scientists is vital to pool our expertise and resources,” she said. Read more about Dr Wassens research here.

Early childhood services on the Border can start planning for 2010 with a national perspective at the 2009 Building Bridges Regional Early Years Conference to be held on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 November in Albury and Wodonga. The keynote address for the conference will be delivered by the lead author of the recently released Early Years Learning Framework, Professor Jennifer Sumsion from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Teacher Education, who will talk about the new national framework and what will be expected of children’s services in 2010. Organised by Wodonga City Council, Wodonga Institute of TAFE and CSU, the Thursday sessions on the new vision for children’s learning will be held at Wodonga TAFE. On Friday, education experts from around Australia will discuss how the national framework will be integrated into local services. The presentations around this theme will take place at the new Learning Hub on CSU’s Thurgoona site, off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona.

Globally, the rate of loss of freshwater wetlands exceeds that of any other ecosystem and predicted climate change will greatly exacerbate the trend in the future. According to Charles Sturt University (CSU) vertebrate ecologist Dr Iain Taylor, wetlands provide invaluable ecosystem services to humans throughout the world and are essential habitats for an amazing diversity of flora and fauna. “Many species of water birds are in serious decline and the on-going drought in southeast Australia has caused a massive and probably irreversible decline in most of the larger water birds such as egrets, ibises and spoonbills,” he said. Dr Taylor is the convener of the international conference, Wetlands and Waterbirds: Managing for Resilience in Leeton in the Riverina region of NSW from Monday 9 November. Also presenting at the conference is CSU wetland ecologist Professor Max Finlayson who said climate change will place many wetlands and species under further pressure from rising temperatures and changes to their water regimes as rainfall patterns change. “If anything we should be constructing or restoring more wetlands, not degrading those that are left. They are valuable and have been under stress for far too long,” said Professor Finlayson, Director of CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society.

The Chancellor of Charles Sturt University (CSU) Mr Lawrie Willett AO will praise the academic achievements of almost 70 graduates who are eligible to receive their awards at a ceremony in Hong Kong on Saturday 7 November. The graduates will receive their postgraduate and undergraduate awards from the University’s Faculties of Arts, Business, Education and Science from 10.30am in the Langham Place Hotel in Hong Kong. The occasional address will be delivered at the graduation ceremony by Mr Steve O’Conner, the Librarian at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Mr O’Conner has worked in Higher Education for most of his career and has researched, published, spoken, consulted and taught very extensively in the areas of change, organisational management, information delivery, scenario and strategic planning, as well as the wider library and information environment. Graduates have completed a range of courses at CSU in areas such as theology, business, information technology, hotel management, arts, primary education, library and information management, medical imaging and clinical nursing.  

Current and future professionals in accounting, business management and computing can continue to receive their degree qualifications on the Border with the establishment of three new schools in Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Faculty of Business. After a recent faculty restructure, the three new schools, which encompass CSU’s five main campuses, will have staff on the Albury-Wodonga Campus and will continue to offer business and computing courses on campus. Head of the School of Business, Associate Professor Grant O’Neill, said the faculty was strengthening existing programs in accounting, finance, marketing, management, and information technology. “We also saw our first group of South Korean students start our Bachelor of Business program and fully expect to see this cohort substantially increase in 2010. We will also offer our Master of Business and Master of Business Administration programs on campus in Albury next year,” Professor O’Neill said. The new Associate Dean (Administration) based at Thurgoona, Associate Professor John Atkinson, said the expansion demonstrated the commitment by the Faculty of Business to provide high quality teaching and research opportunities to students and the Albury-Wodonga community.