Archive

The commercial radio course at Charles Sturt University (CSU) has propelled two recent graduates and a current student into the ranks of finalists of the 2009 Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRA). Mr Brett Van Heekeren, lecturer and course coordinator of the commercial radio course in the School of Communication at CSU at Bathurst says graduates of the commercial radio course have won at least one of these industry awards every year for the last four years. “One of this year’s finalists, Mr Nicholas Day, is a full-time first-year student in the course, and is nominated in the Best Music Director category for his work at B ROCK FM in Bathurst. For Nicholas to reach the finals is a wonderful effort,” Mr Van Heekeren said. The recent CSU graduate finalists are Mr Brendan Beale, now working at 2DAY FM in Sydney and nominated in the Best New Talent Off-Air category, and Mr Cameron Williams, who is nominated in the Best Program Director category for his work at SNOW FM in Cooma.

The National Council on Intellectual Disability (NCID) will provide further support to Charles Sturt University (CSU) to assist children with disabilities. The Council is contributing $3 000 to a special library collection. The ‘Wings Away Collection’, which is housed and managed by the Library at CSU at Albury-Wodonga, has an emphasis on developmental disabilities in young children and support for families of children with disabilities. ‘Wings Away’ is an association of former TAA, Australian Airlines and Qantas flight attendants who work together to help children with disabilities and research into the causes of their disabilities. The NCID contribution will be presented to the CSU Library in Thurgoona at 4pm on Friday 11 September.

One of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) most senior academics is among those honoured for his years of service to CSU and its predecessor institutions. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Ross Chambers is one of 13 staff eligible to receive 20 and 30 year service medals during a ceremony on Friday 11 September in the Convention Centre at CSU at Wagga Wagga from 12.30pm. Professor Chambers joined the Riverina College of Advanced Education (RCAE) in 1979 as an Associate Lecturer in history and politics after studies at the University of Sydney and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London.  He was appointed a Principal Lecturer at RCAE in 1987.  Following the creation of CSU in 1989, Professor Chambers was appointed Head of the School of Humanities and Social Science and in 1992 the Dean of the Faculty of Arts.  In 2002 he was appointed to his current position as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic). “It has been a great privilege to be part of the development of Charles Sturt University and to work with the community of staff and students at the University,” said Professor Chambers. “I have especially appreciated being part of an organisation with a strong commitment to the values of equity in access and participation and of service to its communities.”

Studying for a career in social work in the Riverina is a lot easier thanks to a new agreement that comes into force from Tuesday 1 September. A state-wide agreement between TAFE NSW and Charles Sturt University (CSU) will enable local people interested in a career in social welfare to more easily articulate from TAFE to university studies. The agreement provides Riverina students with a seamless progression between a range of Diploma of Community Services courses at TAFE NSW Riverina Institute and the Bachelor of Social Science (Social Welfare) at CSU. Charles Sturt University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Goulter said, “I welcome this example of Charles Sturt University working more closely with the TAFE sector as an important step in helping increase opportunities for higher education, particularly for people who live in rural and regional Australia. Riverina Institute’s relieving Director Ms Joy Stocker says the agreement is a very positive step toward addressing shortages of qualified community services staff in rural NSW.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is proud to reveal its latest buildings at Orange. More than a library, the new Learning Commons at CSU at Orange is a student-centred space equipped with a range of learning and social areas. The new facility caters for a range of study options from group study pods through to quiet individual study areas.  A mix of computing and multimedia equipment supports group and individual learning.  As well as the new Learning Commons at CSU at Orange, a brand new lecture theatre featuring video conferencing facilities has been built. New student accommodation is currently under construction as the University prepares for more students at Orange in 2010.

 

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic is taking her wide knowledge of the management of invasive weeds to an audience of government and business representatives, academics and volunteers. Professor Leslie Weston is the keynote speaker at the NSW Weeds Conference 2009 on Tuesday 15 September in Narrabri, NSW. Professor Weston will earlier outline her research into the management of invasive weeds and development of natural plant products as pesticides, fungicides, herbicides or insecticides at a seminar at the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation in Wagga Wagga on Wednesday 3 September. The EH Graham Centre is a collaborative alliance between CSU and the NSW Department of Industry and Investment. ‘Factors involved in the establishment of invasive weed species - is allelopathy involved?’ is the topic of her seminar at the EH Graham Centre. Professor Weston joined CSU in 2008 as the Strategic Research Professor of Plant Biology.  She is based at the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences at CSU at Wagga Wagga.

 

When 19 Year Five primary school students and their teachers from St Laurence’s Catholic School at Dubbo made a three-hour excursion to Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Dubbo on Friday 28 August, they did scientific observations that provided practical insights into the work of scientists in the field and in the laboratory. Dr Patricia Logan, a lecturer with the School of Biomedical Science at CSU says the University is committed to nurturing the region’s future young scientists through its support of the CSIRO Scientists in Schools Program. “The CSIRO program is a system that pairs schools with an institutional scientist, such as university science lecturers like me, so that schools and school children can gain access to working scientists,” Dr Logan said. “The children collected water and plant samples from the reserve area below the campus and brought them back to the laboratory where they had a chance to look at their samples under the microscopes. They also had the opportunity to look closely at some plant, shell and coral fossils, as well as a trilobite from the Forbes area.”

 

In the 1950s, artists and designer Ann Gillmore Rees moved with her husband from London to Woorooma West station at Moulamein in the Riverina. Her career as a designer and teacher began in England in the 1920s and concluded in rural Australia in the 1970s. Despite living in the bush from 1939, Rees continued her professional pursuits and contributed to the cultural life of Australia in many ways. A public lecture in Deniliquin by Dr Sue Wood from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU at Wagga Wagga will follow Rees’ life and work, focussing particularly on her life in Australia. It will also explore some of the research strategies used in reconstructing her story and reflect on the importance of local museums and family history groups in preserving Australia’s cultural history. The lecture, ‘London to the Bush - The Life and Work of Ann Gillmore Rees’ will be held on Wednesday 2 September from 6pm in the Deniliquin Council Chambers, Civic Place, Deniliquin. Dr Wood is a practising visual artist who has exhibited in Australia and overseas. Read more here.

Final year podiatry students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) are preparing to enter the workforce as they near completion of their four year course on the Albury-Wodonga Campus, ready to become independent practitioners. By the time they finish their studies in three months, the students will have done over 1 000 hours of clinical practice in addition to theory work. The clinical education has taken place at the CSU Allied Health Clinic in Albury, and in professional placements in regional, rural and metropolitan areas. “This experience helps us manage the patients better,” said Honours student Ms Kate Carroll, who received a number of job offers from prestigious clinics before recently accepting a graduate position with Hunter New England Health in regional NSW. Ms Carroll said the course was certainly demanding but, “when you see yourself on placement, compared to students from other universities, you know you are competent. Our supervisors loved having students from CSU, because we have such a good name. They knew they could put us in a room with a patient and we could manage that patient’s entire treatment”. Kate has had experience in Caulfield (Vic), Newcastle and Canberra over the past four years, winning a CSU scholarship which helped with her placement costs.