The Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Human Movement Studies is hosting a three-day symposium in the NSW Blue Mountains for national and international experts in exercise and exercise rehabilitation. Professor Frank Marino, Head of the CSU School of Human Movement Studies at Bathurst, said The Future of Fatigue in Exercise: An International Symposium on the Limits to Exercise Performance, which runs from Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 July, is the first symposium of its kind in Australia. “The symposium provides an opportunity for leaders in the field from around Australia and the world to come together to discuss a range of issues related to exercise, rehabilitation, health and wellbeing. We expect it will advance our research and the way in which we work together to solve problems that affect many of us, particularly athletes, at some stage in our lives.” Presentations at the symposium include Anticipating fatigue during exercise by Professor Marino and Cancer-fatigue in exercise by CSU’s Dr Jack Canon.

A visiting scholar at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS) will present a public seminar on water management and agricultural extension in India on Wednesday 12 August. Associate Professor Chandrasekaran Karthikeyan, from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in India, will present an overview of the social context of land, water resource management and agriculture in India, with special reference to water management and agricultural extension, as part of the CSU School of Environmental Science seminar series. Professor Karthikeyan is with the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies, based in Coimbatore City, India. He is working with Professor Allan Curtis from ILWS and is an Endeavour Executive fellow based in Albury from June to October 2009. The seminar will be held at CSU’s Thurgoona site.

The world is coming to students with Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Community Health  this week with the annual Allied Health Job Forum being held in Albury. Over 300 students enrolled in CSU degrees in physiotherapy, speech pathology, podiatry and occupational therapy are able to view job vacancies being offered by over 25 organisations. These organisations come from around Australia, including Tasmania, Queensland, ACT, Melbourne and regional Australia, as well as showcasing the newly merged Albury Wodonga Health. CSU representatives will provide information on jobs in general as well as international job opportunities. Forum coordinator Donna Duncan said the forum was a “fantastic opportunity for potential graduates to become aware of the diversity of employment opportunities available”. The forum will be held from 1.30 to 3pm on Thursday 30 July in St David’s Uniting Church Hall, Wilson St, Albury.

The 'Write Around the Murray' Writers Festival that begins in Albury this week will include a large presence from Charles Sturt University (CSU) in one of the Festival’s most popular community events. Ms Jenni Munday from the University’s Murray School of Education based in Albury is coordinating two Literary Pub Crawls through Albury, while several colleagues will present local and Australian writing to an audience moving between indoor and outdoor locations around central Albury.  Mr John Rafferty, a lecturer in science education, will present some wry and witty poetry to perform at the ‘pub location’ in this year’s event. Finalists in the Rotary Poetry competition will also present their works. "It's wonderful to have young poets reading their own work - it gives their work more of an airing", says local writer, Dotty Simmons, whose writing is also featured in two stages of the walk. The first of the two 'pub crawls' will start at 6pm on Thursday 6 August, leaving from the Albury Library Museum in Kiewa St. The second ‘crawl’ will leave from the Zed Bar in Dean Street at 6pm on Sunday 9 August. Prospective audience members are asked to arrive early.

Kindergarten students and teachers in Albury are hoping to revitalise the old saying  ‘a picture can lead to a thousand words’ as part of a literacy research project being run by Charles Sturt University (CSU). Literacy researcher Dr Noella Mackenzie is working with ten teachers and 60 students to explore how children’s love of drawing can be used to support them as they learn to write. “Starting school provides many challenges for children, including learning to write. Writing is the most artificial and difficult of all language activities, because it demands skills from children which differ markedly from talking, reading and listening,” says Dr Mackenzie. “Teachers can make this process easier for children if they use a child’s existing strengths. Children’s drawings allow them to explore their ideas in drawing and talking before moving into the abstract process of writing.” Dr Mackenzie will explore these ideas with local teachers on Thursday 6 August, from 1.30 to 3pm at the Murray School of Education, CSU Thurgoona site. She recently presented early results of her research at a national literacy conference in Hobart, Tasmania.

The Dean of the Faculty of Science at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Professor Nick Klomp, a notable science media personality, will present entertaining public talks about science at the University’s various campuses during August. Members of the community, government and industry representatives, and future students are invited to attend to learn about initiatives currently planned or being implemented in various science disciplines at CSU, such as: the opening of dental clinics on five CSU campuses; a recently completed, environmentally sustainable building that has already won building awards and been awarded six green stars as a world class example of building sustainability; new courses and international opportunities for CSU students; the new $44 million state-of-the-art ‘science precinct’; and current science research at CSU that will ultimately contribute to results which significantly improve industries, communities and the environment. Presentations, which will be open to the public, will be held between 4pm and 5pm, followed by refreshments.

To help celebrate the rejuvenating natural environment found on Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Thurgoona site, Dr John Rafferty, lecturer at the Murray School of Education, will conduct tours of the campus to highlight its environmentally sensitive buildings, water management and campus wetlands, as well as its native fauna and flora. “The tours are part of Biodiversity Month, which aims to promote the importance of protecting, conserving and improving biodiversity across Australia and the world,” Dr Rafferty said. Single tours starting at 10am on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 September will leave from the Thurgoona Learning Commons. A bird display from the collection of Dr David Watson, Associate Professor from the School of Environmental Sciences, will also be held in the Learning Commons. Tour bookings can be made at the loans desk at the Thurgoona Learning Commons, or call (02) 6051 9812.

As part of Charles Sturt University's (CSU) 20th Anniversary celebrations in 2009, the University Council will name several student residences in honour of pioneers of higher education for the University in Albury-Wodonga. An official ceremony will be held at CSU at Albury-Wodonga on its Thurgoona site at 2.15pm on Thursday 24 September. Student residential houses will be named after former Head of Albury-Wodonga Campus and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Professor David Battersby; former member of the University Council and CEO of the Hume Building Society, Dr William Hanrahan; and former director of the Albury Campus and noted local and national historian, Adjunct Associate Professor Bruce Pennay, OAM. CSU Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Ian Goulter, said, “The naming of these residences is one way of recognising the huge contribution and legacy of these three people.” Members of the Albury-Wodonga community have been invited to the ceremony with CSU staff and students, to be held in the Gums Café on CSU’s Thurgoona site, off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona.

Fourteen students enrolled in ecotourism at Charles Sturt University (CSU) had the opportunity to tour East Timor for two weeks, investigating and experiencing tourism and community development. Led by CSU senior lecturer in ecotourism, Dr Rik Thwaites, the students found an undeveloped country outside the capital Dili, with problems in providing suitable food, infrastructure and transport for tourism. “We always felt welcome and were treated with the utmost respect, even though the average villager outside of Dili was very poor being mainly subsistence farmers and fishers,” said third year student Sarah Ridgway. “On Atauro Island [off the main island], they had a different understanding of tourism to international visitors. The sense of tradition and community is very strong in these isolated areas and Western attitudes were actively discouraged among the villagers, so these cultural differences will be a major challenge for the future development of sustainable tourism in regions outside Dili.”