An archive of historic teaching resources from Bathurst Teachers College (BTC) will be celebrated at a special ceremony at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Thursday 23 October. Associate Professor Jane Mitchell, from the CSU School of Teacher Education in Bathurst, said, "The Memorabilia Cabinet has been established to honour the work of staff and students of the Bathurst Teachers' College. The cabinet provides a permanent record of teacher education in the 1950s and 1960s in Bathurst, and contains a rich and varied trove of teaching resources created by teaching staff and students, dating from the early 1950s." Professor Mitchell will open the proceedings before an address about BTC and CSU by Head of Campus at CSU in Bathurst, Mr Col Sharp. The Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education, Professor Toni Downes, will officially 'launch' the cabinet, followed by a response by Mr Wayne Bensley, President of the Bathurst Teachers' College Alumni Association. The launch of the Memorabilia Cabinet will be at 12pm Thursday 23 October in the foyer of the Heffron Building (building 1430) on Wiradjuri Road at CSU in Bathurst. All associated with Bathurst Teachers' College are welcome to attend.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) student's exhibition of art works by Bathurst residents and others affected in some way by adoption will be launched in the foyer of Bathurst Base Hospital on Thursday 9 October. The community exhibition 'Lost and Found – the art of adoption' forms part of a Bachelor of Communication (Theatre and Media) (Honours) research project by Ms Alesha Elbourne, a student in the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst. Ms Elbourne has researched the use of art-based methods to explore stories, experiences and issues concerning people affected by adoption. "This participatory art project has provided an opportunity to give voice to the stories, experiences and issues of people who are affected by adoption," Ms Elbourne said. "It was not necessary for the participants to be artists, just people who identified as being affected by adoption in some way. The artworks have a beautifully personalised quality, having been handmade and written using eco art or recycled materials." The exhibition features artworks from both local and nationally-based participant artists via online correspondence, and includes a patchwork-style map of artworks and photographs of artworks including masks, sculpture, letters, postcards etc, and there will also be a handmade magazine featuring stories and artworks by 12 local artist-participants on the topic of adoption.

Students from Bathurst and Wagga Wagga will represent Charles Sturt University (CSU) at the Australian University Games for the first time in the sport of sailing. Second year paramedic student Ms Kaela Sparre, originally from Sydney, is leading a team of six women in competition over three days starting Tuesday 30 September at the Georges River Sailing Club in Sydney. "I have sailed all my life and I wanted to go to the Uni Games and other university competitions and get my friends and other Charles Sturt University students involved in the sport," Ms Sparre said. "We are really not sure what to expect because half of our team, the skippers, are experienced while the other half, the crews, are beginners. Personally, I just want to beat my sister's team from the University of Technology, Sydney." The competition will see students sail in small dinghies from the Pacer class provided by the Georges River Sailing Club.

An exhibition of history-inspired collaborative art works by Charles Sturt University (CSU) students will be officially opened at the Chifley Home and Education Centre in Bathurst on Saturday 27 September. Dr Donna Mathewson Mitchell, a senior lecturer in the CSU School of Teacher Education in Bathurst, said the Threads of Time exhibition is the result of collaboration between Bathurst Regional Council (BRC) and the CSU Faculty of Education. The exhibition will feature artworks that explore connections with history through the interpretation of objects related to Australia from the 1930s to 1950s and the Chifley Home site. "The artists are all distance education students from around Australia who are studying secondary visual arts teaching at the Faculty of Education," Dr Mathewson Mitchell said. "The exhibition is the culmination of a 10-week project in which they collaboratively created artworks as artists and co-teachers in a practice-based virtual classroom. The approach is an innovation in online teaching and learning at Charles Sturt University, and has been presented at a number of national and international conferences. This is the second year of the project. The first exhibition, titled Distant Connections, was shown in 2013."

The organisers of the Tony McGrane Memorial Scholarship Dinner next Monday 15 September are honoured to announce that Mrs Ruth Shanks, AM, is the official guest speaker. Mrs Shanks was elected to the position of World President of the Associated Country Women of the World at the 27th Triennial Conference in Chennai, India, in 2013. Mr Geoff Wise, chair of the local organising committee for the Tony McGrane Memorial Foundation Scholarship for students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo, said, "Mrs Shanks is a long-term resident of the Dubbo district, and perhaps sets a precedent as the first Dubbo and Orana region resident to hold such a distinguished international role and responsibility. Mrs Shanks has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to her local, national and international interests. She has been a member of the Country Women's Association of New South Wales for 45 years, serving at both state and local levels, and has been a member of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) for 23 years. From 1995 to 2001 she was Assistant to the President of ACWW for the South Pacific, and from 2007 to 2013 was Area President for the South Pacific." Mr Wise said the Tony McGrane Memorial Scholarship Dinner aims to raise funds to support perpetual scholarships for full-time students from the Orana region who attend CSU in Dubbo. "Since the inception of the Scholarship Foundation, eight scholarships have been awarded to students from across the region," Mr Wise said. "Having a local person as our guest speaker who has demonstrated what can be achieved from both a personal and influential perspective is totally consistent with the vision of the late Tony McGrane and the aspirations of the Memorial Foundation Scholarships for local students." The Tony McGrane Memorial Scholarship Dinner at CSU in Dubbo is fully booked.

If it's spring in Bathurst, it's time for the SPRUNG Festival at Charles Sturt University (CSU).The annual season of dynamic productions and performances by final-year theatre/media students at the School of Communication and Creative Industries at CSU in Bathurst under the SPRUNG Festival of Creativity banner will illuminate several on-campus venues from Tuesday 23 September for two weeks.The SPRUNG Festival coordinator, Ms Sarah Padget, said, "We have an exciting line-up of seven productions in the 2014 season that will provide audiences with opportunities to experience new and exciting work from emerging artists. While the Festival will be based at the Ponton Theatre at the University in Bathurst, performances will be staged at other on-campus locations including the state-of-the-art Creative Hub and several outdoor locations, enhancing the SPRUNG experience. The best thing about this year's Festival is that there really is something for everybody - from comedy, musicals and drama to outdoor spectaculars."The SPRUNG Festival will be launched at 6.30pm Thursday 11 September at The Elephant and Castle Hotel, corner of Keppel and Seymour Streets, Bathurst. There is free entry to the launch. Tickets for the Festival are available online via Try Booking, and at the door. Student and non-student tickets are available with special prices for those purchasing tickets to three or more exciting productions.

The President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs, will deliver a free public lecture at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Friday 12 September.The topic of this CSU Explorations Series lecture is 'Children in immigration detention: what are the human rights issues?' Head of Campus at CSU in Bathurst Mr Col Sharp said "The University thanks the Bathurst Refugee Support Group, and in particular Sister Pat Linnane, for bringing Professor Triggs to Bathurst in the first place. In hosting this public lecture, Charles Sturt University is undertaking its role to confront contemporary issues that are important to our society, and clearly 'child detention' is one such issue. I hope as many community members as possible take this opportunity to hear Professor Triggs, as she is a highly respected figure who can speak with authority on the issues." Professor Triggs' public lecture will outline Australia's key human rights obligations in relation to asylum seekers and refugees, discuss the impacts of closed immigration detention, and provide an update on the Commission's National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. The Australian Human Rights Commission has worked to promote and protect the human rights of asylum seekers, refugees, and people in immigration detention for more than a decade, and Professor Triggs' long-standing commitment to legal education builds on the Commission's efforts to inform Australians, especially children, about their fundamental human rights. Her focus at the Commission is on the implementation in Australian law of the human rights treaties to which Australia is a party, and to work with nations in the Asia-Pacific region on practical approaches to human rights.  

The importance and value of multilingual children is the focus of an Explorations Series free public lecture at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Wednesday 20 August. Professor Sharynne McLeod, an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow and the Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition at the CSU School of Teacher Education and the Research Institute for Professional Practice Learning and Education (RIPPLE), will deliver a multimedia presentation about her 4-year ARC research around the world. Professor McLeod's research emphasises the right of everyone, particularly children, to participate fully in society. Her research has supported multilingual children in many countries including Vietnam, Jamaica, Fiji, Turkey, Zambia, Hong Kong, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, the United States and Australia. "Children master most of their speech and language skills in their first five to six years of life," Professor McLeod said. "Additionally, many children around the world become competent communicators in more than one language. However, some children can have difficulty with speech and language, regardless of the number of languages they speak. In schools, we should encourage and support the use of 'home languages' (ie languages other than English spoken at home). As a nation, we should celebrate multilingualism and recognise it as a valuable resource to be used more effectively." Please RSVP to Ms Kate Esdaile on (02) 6338 4645 or kesdaile@csu.edu.au.

Women academics at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst, Wagga Wagga, and Albury-Wodonga will celebrate 'Bluestocking Week' (11 to 15 August) with a range of events. Bluestocking Week is a celebration of the contribution of women to university and intellectual life, and is an initiative of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). At CSU in Bathurst the celebration at Rafters at 2.30pm Thursday 14 August will feature fireside discussions, coffee/hot chocolate and nibbles, and a performance by the CSU ukulele group, 'CSUkes'. There will also be a sample display of photos by female activists from a Bluestocking photo exhibition coordinated by CSU NTEU members which will be launched at CSU in Albury-Wodonga on Monday 11 August. The event at CSU in Wagga Wagga, titled 'Depraved and Corrupt Women', will feature readings of selected passages from banned and challenged books written by women. This will be from 4.30pm to 6pm Thursday 14 August at the CSU Cellar Door, near car park 11, McKeown Drive. One of the organisers of the event in Bathurst, Dr Kristina Gottschall from the CSU Centre for Indigenous Studies, said, "The theme this year is 'Crossing the Line', which focuses on fighting attitudes that seek to silence the voices of women, and highlights the importance of women speaking out and sharing their stories and views. Several female CSU academics from diverse backgrounds have been invited to share their stories about being an academic, and what education means to them."