Archive
CSU agriculture bank on it
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) excellence in teaching and training agricultural professionals for inland Australia is influencing the decisions of some of the nation’s largest businesses. Speaking recently at the launch of AgriLine in the Riverina, the Commonwealth Bank’s Executive General Manager, Agribusiness, Mr Jon Sutton said “The reason we chose Wagga Wagga was because of Charles Sturt University, it has a great Ag (Agricultural) faculty.” Mr Sutton said. “Also there is a significant pool of employable people who have an affinity for the land.” CSU’s Dean of Science Professor Nick Klomp said “This comment is typical of responses we hear from industry around Australia, particularly from inland NSW.” He said “CSU continues to focus on agricultural teaching and research, further enhancing educational experiences for students studying everything from pasture production to agribusiness.”
Wentworth group rewards CSU student
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
Competing against some of the top young environmental scientists in Australia, Charles Sturt University (CSU) honours student John Rawsthorne has won a scholarship from the eminent Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists in recognition of his project on the importance of birds in spreading mistletoes in the Australian landscape. His supervisor Dr David Watson from the CSU School of Environmental Sciences asserts that the mistletoe is an important indicator of the health of Australian bush, and John’s research project will help discover how this occurs. In addition to receiving financial support from the Purves Environmental Trust to attend the 2007 Ecological Society of Australia conference in Perth in November, Mr Rawsthorne will also receive advice from leading Australian ecologists Professor Hugh Possingham and Dr Denis Saunders during the project, as well as attend a master class with senior scientists and fellow students in Sydney in October. John’s award is one of 19 presented to research students in universities around Australia. He is based in Forbes in central NSW.
Federal shadow minister to visit CSU Bathurst Campus
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003Charles Sturt University (CSU) Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Goulter, will welcome the Federal shadow Minister for Health, Ms Nicola Roxon, MP, and NSW MP Mr Bob Debus, when they visit the Bathurst Campus on Tuesday 31 July. Ms Roxon and Mr Debus will arrive at 3pm at the Heffron Building for a briefing with Professor Goulter before a tour of the Bathurst Campus, which will include an inspection of the new library Learning Commons and the School of Nursing buildings. Mr Debus is also the Australian Labor Party (ALP) candidate for the new seat of Macquarie in the coming 2007 Federal election.
Zen on the stage
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003The theatre and the practice of meditation might seem unrelated, but not for some thespians who use the essence of Zen philosophy to enhance their performances on stage. Charles Sturt University (CSU) in conjunction with Wagga Wagga City Council is presenting a public lecture Zen and Theatre by John Bolton, Guest Director with the CSU School of Visual and Performing Arts and a Zen practitioner. In the lecture, he will present the story of one person’s adventure in theatre and Zen over the last 35 years. Mr Bolton believes that the actor is the one who makes the most mistakes, and the ability to continue to make mistake after mistake, discarding, polishing, and recreating, takes the same sort of steadfast centre of stillness that is found in Zen.
CSU’s community radio awarded NRMA grant
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003The National Roads and Motorists Association (NRMA) has awarded Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) community radio station 2MCE a $5 000 grant to produce an innovative road safety radio campaign. The campaign will target young drivers about the dangers of using mobile phones while driving, particularly during the hazardous winter months on roads between Bathurst and Orange. Coordinator of 2MCE’s Studio 4, Bronwen Matherson, said that CSU students will be involved in the production of the NRMA radio campaign. “This campaign will give local youth the chance to share their driving stories and experiences while raising road safety awareness at the same time,” Ms Matherson said. The campaign will include the production of four “driver safety” radio announcements to be broadcast 200 times each, and the exploration of road safety issues on 2MCE’s youth issues program That’ll Learn Ya. 2MCE operates from CSU’s Bathurst Campus.
Social development in India
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Associate Professor Manohar Pawar highly commended the Indian ”rights-based approach” to economic development while speaking at a plenary session on “welfare-to-work” at the 15th symposium of the International Consortium for Social Development in Hong Kong. Professor Pawar particularly supported the right to education and right to work, which is the main basis of emerging social security in India. According to Professor Pawar, India, which is in the midst of liberalisation, free market and globalisation, has assumed the responsibility of providing work to its citizens by enacting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005. He added India has also proposed to offer security to workers in the unorganised sector, when the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Bill is approved in the Parliament and contended that politics of welfare should not be geared for welfare of politics or politicians.
More gold for CSU wines
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Winery has been awarded three more prestigious wine show medals at the 2007 Boutique Wine Awards in Sydney. The CSU Winery claimed two Gold Medals and one Silver Medal, continuing the winery’s success at major Australian wine shows. The 2006 Limited Release Chardonnay was awarded a Gold Medal and more recently won Top Gold in its class at the 2007 Cowra Wine Show. This wine is produced from grapes grown in the University’s vineyard at Orange. The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot also took a Gold Medal. This wine is produced from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from the University’s Wagga Wagga vineyard and from the Hilltops region in Young, NSW and Merlot grapes from Cowra. The 2005 Shiraz won a Silver Medal and although this wine is not yet released, it was also awarded a Silver Medal at the 2006 Wagga Wagga (Southern NSW) wine show. It is produced from grapes from CSU vineyards at Orange and Wagga Wagga and from the Gundagai region.
Stop the seep, save the water
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003
A Charles Sturt University (CSU) PhD candidate is investigating ways to reduce costly water loss from irrigation canals through seepage and techniques that can be used to plug the leaks. Jacqueline Watt, through the International Centre of WATER located at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, has conducted extensive field work in the Coleambally Irrigation Area, in inland NSW and the Rechna Doab Irrigation Area, in Pakistan. In her studies, Ms Watt measured the resistance of the irrigation canal and took soil samples to determine the volume of water leaving the canal. Ms Watt says, “This will provide irrigators with the ability to quickly determine the cost and benefit of lining irrigation canals with different materials, and the length of canal that needs to be lined”. Ms Watt expects her research will be of great benefit to Australian irrigation companies and hopes that her research in Pakistan will help the technology flow to other third world countries.
Healthy feet take on city slickers
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003Five podiatry students from Charles Sturt University’s Albury-Wodonga Campus will this Sunday 12 August take on the mighty mass of runners in the Sydney City-to-Surf Fun Run. Local third year students and regular entrants in the local Nail Can Hill run, Brad White and Dominique Ferguson, will be joined by three second- and first-year students in the annual event. The students are being sponsored by the Podiatry Association of NSW, which gives the Albury-based students direct association with their professional body. “Podiatry has close contact with runners and sports groups and jobs are plentiful when we qualify,” said Mr White. Running partner Dominique Ferguson said “this event helps me combine my love for running with work in my chosen profession, and get paid for it when I qualify.”
Does homework add up?
Wednesday, 1 Jan 2003Homework has been a tradition in education for decades. Recently, educators have begun to rethink the value of homework, particularly for primary and middle school aged children. Is homework useful? Should our children do homework at all? If so, what would constitute quality homework for children? Dr Tracey Smith from the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Education will use the example of mathematics to address all of these questions at a public lecture at West Wyalong on Wednesday 29 August. It will explore perceptions about mathematics, how it is learned most effectively, how parents can help their children learn mathematics and how mathematics homework might be more meaningfully developed to enhance learning at home, rather than create a battle zone for parents and their children.