Charles Sturt University (CSU) courses, offered through its partnership with Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE (GOTAFE) and the National Centre for Dairy Education Australia (NCDEA), will be on show at Wangaratta on Tuesday 11 June. CSU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (International Education and Partnerships), Professor Heather Cavanagh, will host a wine and cheese evening at the campus to talk about CSU’s aspirations and plans for Wangaratta. GOTAFE CEO Mr Paul Culpan will also attend. This is the first in a series of regional community and industry functions to discuss current and proposed CSU courses on offer, and the design of the new CSU building in Wangaratta, with local representatives.

Australian Skeptics have retained their $110 000 prize after 84 tests were performed during the annual Mitta Muster near Albury-Wodonga on Sunday 10 March to see if anyone could demonstrate an ability to ‘divine’ water. In what was the world’s largest scientific test of water divining, 20 two litre bottles full of sand or water were placed randomly in an open area to see if water diviners could identify the contents of each bottle. There was no time limit and bottles were moved periodically throughout the day to ensure fairness. “The results showed no doubt,” said Charles Sturt University psychology lecturer and event organiser, Dr Krissy Wilson. “All results fell into the expected pattern for random results and no pattern for any ‘diving’ abilities. We had participants from across NSW and Victoria take the test, and none were scientifically proved to have any particular psychic ability to find water.” Chief investigator from Australian Skeptics, Mr Ian Bryce, observed that, “The results when charted revealed a classic ‘bell curve’ showing results that we would expect from random chance”. Australian Skeptics remain willing to search for the evidence that divining is a real phenomenon. The $110 000 prize remains available for anyone able to demonstrate any paranormal claim under controlled conditions.

Two academics from Albury have won top honours in annual awards from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Vann. Lecturer with CSU’s School of Environmental Sciences, Dr Rosemary Black has won the individual Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Professional Excellence, while Dr Jenni Munday, the Associate Head of the School of Education, won the individual Award for Teaching Excellence. Dr Munday said her award shows that universities such as CSU can provide high quality distance education that is “student-centred, collaborative and constructive, and along with the excellent work we do with the students we teach face-to-face on-campus”.  Dr Black received her award for her long commitment and significant contribution to environmental interpretation and tour guiding as a practitioner, teacher and researcher. Dr Black has had roles on international, national and regional committees such as the International Union for Conservation and Nature, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, Interpretation Australia and Guiding Organisations of Australia. They will receive their awards from Professor Vann at a ceremony at CSU in Wagga Wagga on Wednesday 28 August. Read about other 2013 Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards on CSU News here.

Two researchers from Charles Sturt University (CSU) want to learn more about what the residents of Thurgoona and Wirlinga on the north-east edge of Albury know and understand about conservation and the plants and animals that live in the area. Dr Rosemary Black and Dr Shelby Laird from CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society will distribute a postal survey to households in these suburbs, starting Wednesday 6 March. “The Thurgoona and Wirlinga areas are expected to grow to over 50 000 people in the next 30 years, and will become a more urban environment,” Dr Black said. “This will impact on the area’s native animals and the flora they depend on, particularly threatened species. We are investigating this community’s knowledge and values about nature and conservation before changes occur and before any projects or education initiatives are conducted. This is a very rare opportunity for us as researchers to gather this information.” The postal survey will be followed by interviews with some residents to gather more data that could be used to develop better conservation projects in the future. “Finding out what people know about nature and conservation in Thurgoona and Wirlinga will help conservation organisations like the Albury Conservation Company, as well as state and local governments, to better plan their future conservation activities,” Dr Laird said.

The quest to capture the quintessential image of Wangaratta has led to a number of high quality images which also highlight the growing partnership between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Goulburn Ovens TAFE (GOTAFE) in the region. GOTAFE design students have captured photographic images of Wangaratta to assist with marketing the presence and courses of CSU in Wangaratta. A prize of $100 per image has been provided by CSU for the competition, which was won by Ms Cassandra Pollock, Ms Paige Milne and Mr Phillip Watt, who will receive their prizes at GOTAFE in Wangaratta on Wednesday 11 September. Manager of CSU’s Wangaratta centre Ms Robyn Farley said: “This is another example of the strength of the GOTAFE-CSU partnership, where we can work together to maximise opportunities and outcomes for regional students”. GOTAFE photography teacher Warren Tait, added “The quality of the images taken by these students was excellent, and evidence of their skills in understanding a photography design brief and then taking images to meet that brief”.

Society has been transformed by computing and data transfer technology in the last two decades. The success of Charles Sturt University (CSU), which was established in 1989, owes much to the innovation and capacity of its Division of Information Technology (DIT) which celebrates its 20th anniversary with a staff barbeque on Friday 26 November. DIT Executive Director, Mr Garry Taylor, said, “Charles Sturt University was created as part of the Dawkins-era reform of the Australian higher education sector, and the University’s success is partly due to the early and deliberate priority to develop technology to ensure success. We were one of the first universities in Australia to adopt video conferencing technology, and we now have more than 100 terminals, which is important for teaching, learning and collaboration, as well as reducing the need to travel which is important for the environment. In 1990 Charles Sturt University was one of the first regional universities to connect to the Internet, and at one stage our website had the most ‘hits’ of any website in Australia in 1995-96. We also had a world-first enterprise-wide Online Learning Environment in 1997. We now have the fastest single and direct internal network link in regional Australia and the largest wireless network in the Southern Hemisphere.”

With the car traffic growing around Thurgoona and on its campus, Charles Sturt University (CSU) recently completed research to study how staff and students travelled to and from the Albury-Wodonga campus and why they travelled the way they did. Research project coordinator and social researcher Dr Shelby Gull Laird said many CSU staff and students indicated they would like to ride a bicycle or ride a bus instead or driving their car, but not all of them. Convenience and necessity were the main reasons that over 60 per cent of travellers chose their car as their main means of getting to work and study at CSU. Only five per cent currently travel by bicycle and six per cent by bus. “With over 20 per cent of respondents travelling from outside Albury-Wodonga city limits to work and study, this provides a barrier to a large increase in the use of buses and bikes. However, a number of people who live in Albury-Wodonga said they used their bikes or bus as their ‘second’ mode of transport, so we need to see what it will take to make them change their main modes of transport out to Thurgoona,” Mr Maher said. The research will help point to ways that show how CSU can become carbon ‘neutral’ by 2015. The research was carried out in 2012 and 2013 by Dr Gull Laird and Dr Rosemary Black from CSU’s School of Environmental Sciences.

A program to advance Charles Sturt University (CSU) as a leader in higher education teaching and learning will be launched in Bathurst on Tuesday 17 September. CSU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Garry Marchant, said, “Given the ongoing growth of student numbers and evolution of the higher education sector due to theoretical and technological developments, the launch of ‘Smart Learning’ will enable a stronger professionalised teaching focus to improve student engagement and maintain high-quality teaching standards at the University. With the implementation of Smart Learning, Charles Sturt University will lead the way in higher education learning and teaching innovation.” Information about Smart Learning and the next steps in establishing this program will be presented at the launch at The Grange, CSU in Bathurst at 3pm on Tuesday 17 September.

Aboriginal boys from Murray, James Fallon and Albury high schools in Albury will get a glimpse of their own paths in tertiary education when they discuss future study options at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga on Friday 13 September. The 2013 BroSpeak project will finish with a barbeque for participants and speakers, including Mr Brett Biles, who is an Aboriginal man and CSU academic involved in the BroSpeak program which was facilitated by Mr Matthew Hogan from Murray High School. “We are helping these students on their journey to develop life skills and identify and connect with their culture, while encouraging the boys to engage with school. This visit is important in providing these boys with educational goals that they can achieve locally,” Mr Biles said. The BroSpeak project has been run over six weeks by the NSW Department of Education and Communities, CSU and local Aboriginal men from Albury-Wodonga. “The program involves Aboriginal men from the local community providing advice, education and their stories on being successful and proud Aboriginal men, including those involved in tertiary education,” Mr Biles said.