One of the first music lecturers at Bathurst Teacher’s College (BTC), John Cassim, has donated $20 000 to the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Foundation Trust. The funds will be used to support the John Cassim Award for Music Education and will be awarded to a student who is undertaking one or both of the two music electives of their teaching degree. When Mr Cassim arrived at the brand new BTC in 1951, it was an era that today’s staff and students would hardly recognise. He particularly recalls one night when a student was discovered with a bottle of beer. “Well that student was dismissed on the spot. I couldn’t believe it.” He says he “loved the students” and he hopes the scholarship money will help the recipient with their University fees. After Bathurst, Mr Cassim taught in Sydney and conducted for the Sydney Opera Company, the precursor to Opera Australia, before establishing a thoroughbred horse racing stud in Bowral. Now 85, he is still breeding race horses and loves to play CDs “so the mares and foals can listen to music”.