In response to the needs of graduates, Charles Sturt University (CSU) has moved its graduation ceremonies to the December of the year that students finish their studies. CSU in Albury-Wodonga will hold its graduation ceremonies on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 December. Head of Campus at CSU in Albury-Wodonga, Ms Sue Moloney, said, “Exit surveys of students indicated that they preferred to graduate the year they finished study, rather than return six months later when the majority have moved away to begin their careers - making it expensive or impractical to travel to Albury-Wodonga to celebrate. We are expecting nearly 800 graduates to cross the stage during three ceremonies, bringing with them up to 1 800 visitors to Albury-Wodonga, which again provides a welcome boost to the local economy.” These ceremonies will be held at Trinity College at Thurgoona.

The new Murray Children’s Centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga will open its doors to the public on Friday 27 January. The $3.5 million building, located on Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona, will welcome almost three times the number of children at the previous building located on Olive Street in the Albury city centre. The new 72-place early childhood centre currently has full-time places available for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. The new Centre has been built with sustainability in mind, featuring lighting that adjusts to the daylight, temperature controlled under floor heating, high ceilings for air flow, views of the natural landscape, and ergonomic kitchen, play and bathroom facilities. The community is invited to tour the new facility at the Murray Children’s Centre open house from 2pm to 4pm on Friday 27 January.

Parents of children aged three and under can be part of an expo of resources this week in Lavington aimed at supporting parents and carers of babies and toddlers through their early lives. Presented by Charles Sturt University (CSU) students in the final year of their early childhood and primary education degree, the one-day event, titled the Early Years Parent Information Expo, aims to be fun and interactive for children and parents, full of information to take home. Topics on show for mothers, fathers, grandparents, carers, professional teachers, children and siblings include early literacy, learning through play, sleep issues, toilet training, feeding and separation issues. Event coordinator and education lecturer with the CSU School of Education, Dr Laura Piazza, said the event, “is a great opportunity for families to draw on the expertise of our pre-service teachers and ask questions about ways to best support children’s learning in the early years”. The expo will be held on Wednesday 23 May, from 9.30 to 11am in Mirambeena Community Centre in Lavington.

Budding nurses from Charles Sturt University (CSU) have returned to school to lend a helping hand with health education at an Albury primary school. Seven first year nursing students are developing and delivering messages on healthy living over winter for pupils and teachers at St Anne’s Primary School in North Albury. “The students also carried out a health and safety audit of the school and developed newsletter items for parents, reinforcing what their children have learned in the classroom,” said project coordinator and CSU nursing academic, Ms Sharon Laver. “The school project also helps our students develop skills in leadership, negotiation, collaboration, health education and research while working with teachers and children in the real world.” Later this week, the CSU students will present their work to pupils and teachers at St Anne’s.

Murray Children’s Centre shares the new purpose-built early childhood building at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga with Aspire Support Services, formerly Woodstock Early Intervention. Dr Sydnye Allen, Murray Children’s Centre director, and Ms Rachael Webb, early intervention manager at Aspire, work collaboratively to provide professional and practical support to CSU and Aspire. “Families of young children benefit from having convenient access to high-quality early childhood education and early intervention specialists located in one building,” Dr Allen said. CSU early childhood education students participate in placements with Murray Children’s Centre and Aspire, with three education students currently working in the infant and toddler classrooms. “For many Charles Sturt University students, this may be their first opportunity to work with children with learning difficulties,” Ms Webb said. Dr Allen and Ms Webb are also engaged in a research project on transitions in early childhood environments, with Dr Laura Piazza from CSU’s School of Education and pre-school teacher and Murray Children’s Centre assistant director, Ms Michelle Smith.

Charles Sturt University’s new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Vann, will officially open an interpretive walk around Australia’s first environmentally friendly university campus this week in Albury.  “The Albury-Wodonga Campus is a developing, dynamic model of how communities can address environmental concerns and create sustainable environments,” Professor Vann said. Among the features of the campus are rammed earth buildings, ‘natural’ air conditioning, composting toilets, and an award winning, six green star energy rated building. “Hundreds of people visit the campus each year to learn about these features and we have responded by putting up signs that help explain these sustainable design principles,” he said. The opening and initial walk will commence at 2.45pm on Wednesday 9 May in the Gums Café, off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona.

An educational program designed to assist local communities in dealing with confronting issues for young people will be presented at a public event on 10 August at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga. The Putting Youth in the Picture program, which is being rolled out across CSU’s regions after it secured the first NSW licence, “is about empowering local communities through their local councils, school or sporting groups to use the program’s resources to hopefully prevent their young people from getting into difficulties,” said Manager of Residential Operations at CSU, Mr Peter Bell. “Using confronting, authentic scenarios, the program shows the consequences of certain behaviour, without moralising. No issue is regarded as too tough to tackle: sexual assault, binge and underage drinking, and alcohol-fuelled violence are all addressed in the program.” The free program will be presented to school students and their parents and teachers by two senior residential advisers from the University’s Thurgoona student residences, Mr Douglas Canning and Ms Emily Green. The Putting Youth in the Picture program will be held in CSU’s Blake Lecture Theatre, located off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona, starting with refreshments at 6pm before the program commences at 6.30pm.

Scientists and administrators from India are visiting the Border this week to investigate how Australia is managing the often conflicting uses for limited water resources. Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute for Land, Water and Society is hosting the 14 person group, from Loktak in Manipur state and Chilika, Bhubaneswar, for their three-day visit to CSU in Albury-Wodonga and its surrounding natural and artificial wetlands. ILWS director, Professor Max Finlayson, said, “Indian wetland managers face competing interests for water resources, such as hydro-electricity, irrigation, domestic supply, and the environment, which we are also addressing in the Murray Darling Basin. This is a great opportunity for both countries to learn how we can more effectively manage our water resources for all our users.”

Racehorse injuries and performance are the subject of new research led by Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Dr Brian Spurrell from the School of Biomedical Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga. While the equine industry contributes up to $6.3 billion annually to the Australian economy, of which racing contributes around $3.9 billion and equestrian events $0.87 billion, the management of equine athletes and detection of injuries remains a significant problem. The relationship between a horse’s gait and the performance surface may contribute to the incidence of lower limb injuries. “As many as 70 per cent of two year-old thoroughbreds suffer stress related injuries in their lower limbs and up to 35 per cent of racehorses never resume racing as a consequence,” Dr Spurrell said. “The aim of the research is to develop a system which can be used in the field to measure important biomechanical parameters of a horse such as how hard the hoof hits the ground, the way the limb moves and how that relates to joint movement and muscle activity. The system will hopefully also indicate how quickly the horse is tiring, post-event recovery and a comparison to its last monitoring.” The research is expected to produce results in various stages by October 2011 and mid-2012.