Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Contact Centre (CC), located at the Bathurst Campus, was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's 2006 Team Award for Performance Excellence in a ceremony last night (Monday 26 February). Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter said, “This annual award recognises and rewards outstanding contributions to the achievement of CSU’s objectives and priorities. My congratulations and sincere appreciation goes to the CC team, and to all nominees for their ongoing contribution to CSU’s community.” Manager of the CC Ms Kerry Browning said, “We are delighted to be recognised for our contribution to CSU. It reinforces that we are one University working to achieve common goals.” The CC provides a first point of contact for prospective students seeking information about courses, fees, scholarships and accommodation. In 2006 they handled approximately 155 000 enquiries by phone, email and on the Internet.

Dr Rob Duffield of Charles Sturt University's (CSU) School of Human Movement is helping Bathurst residents prepare for the Bathurst half marathon and 10 kilometre fun run to be held in April. He is presenting a 10-week fitness and preparation plan that will appear in the local newspaper in the ten-week run-up to the event. “The idea is to gradually and progressively build people up over the first seven or eight weeks so that they can complete the distance, and then work on being able to actually race at a good speed. It’s such a high-profile community event that you find people do want to participate. Anyone can do the training program, but people need to be realistic about their goals - if they have been sedentary for a long, long time, then the half marathon is probably out of the picture, but the fun run is achievable for everyone.”

Young people’s access to educational opportunities can be adversely affected by drought, according to new research that will be presented at a national conference soon. Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor Margaret Alston and Dr Jenny Kent will present the final report on their research at the conference which will be hosted by the Federal Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), the Foundation for Regional / Rural Renewal (FRRR) and CSU. Former Deputy Prime Minister and conference convenor Ian Sinclair will join with members of the Myer family, who are the major donors to the FRRR, at the official welcome starting at 2pm on Tuesday 17 April at the Nowik Auditorium, CSU Albury City site, Guinea St, Albury.

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor Warren Somerville has been recognised in the 2007 Australia Day honours for his life-long fascination with collecting rocks, minerals and fossils. He was made a member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to natural history and the community. “I was very surprized at this unexpected award, but I feel it is recognition of the valuable contribution that the collection makes to education generally and the Bathurst community in particular,” Professor Somerville said. In 2000 Professor Somerville donated what is now known as The Somerville Collection, which is valued between $6 million to $12 million, to the Australian Mineral and Fossil Museum in Bathurst.

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) National Radio News (NRN) was Highly Commended in the ‘Excellence in the Spoken Word’ category by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) at its annual conference in November 2006. NRN manager, Mr Peter Hetherington, said “The highly commended award is a well deserved result for the whole NRN team which consists of only three full-time journalists and six casual cadets who are CSU communications students.” Mr Hetherington said this was the first time in several years NRN has entered in any awards. “It lifted the morale of the staff to be competing on a national level, with the standard of the NRN entries very high. It also showcased the ability of cadet staff to a broader audience, and demonstrates the unique news experience NRN offers to students who are selected for cadetships.”

After six months teaching Year Seven students in a small American curriculum school, Charles Sturt University graduate Lijana Poga decided to switch to volunteer work in an impoverished area south of Manilla in the Philippines. There she found herself working with kindergarten students and developmentally delayed orphans in an unusual classroom setting – a rubbish dump. She was living with an Australian family who run a mission organisation which provides food and schooling to 1 000 children. “I started sponsoring a girl while I was at school and always wanted to volunteer. I decided to go to university and study Education so I had something to offer.” Lijana has returned to Dubbo where she will be teaching in the city’s West. “I’d just like to tell other Education students that there are so many opportunities out there from teaching from international schools to volunteer work. It’s definitely worth looking into.”

Former US vice-president Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, which details the affects of global warming, has become the third-highest grossing documentary in the United States to date. It seems the film’s message is not lost on Australian audiences either, according to Dr Mark Morrison from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Marketing and Management, Bathurst Campus. He is working on a CSIRO project looking at the value the community has for reducing global warming.”We are measuring the community’s willingness to sacrifice future income to mitigate the affects of global warming. It is very interesting - we are finding that although about ten per cent of people don’t want to sacrifice any income, there is a very large proportion who don‘t care about the cost, they just want it fixed.” He says the preliminary findings were presented at a conference in New Delhi recently.

Tennis lovers rejoiced yesterday when the Australian Open got underway in Melbourne. The Open marks the beginning of the tournament year for tennis players, so for the past eight weeks, they have been concentrating on reaching peak fitness, according to Dr Rob Duffield, lecturer in the School of Human Movement at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Once the frenetic pace of the tournament year gets underway, “It becomes quite difficult to find time for physical conditioning, so a lot of tennis coaches and tennis players do their fitness work on court using practice drills. The problem with these drills is that you don’t really know what’s going on,” said Dr Duffield, who spent part of last year quantifying the physical responses to popular tennis drills. His results will be published soon, and will be beneficial to tennis coaches. “Coaches can say well, this kind of drill is very aerobic and will improve physical fitness, while that kind of drill will increase shot velocity and shot accuracy,” he said.

Building relationships with local and international industry and institutions is the focus for new director of Charles Sturt University’s Asian Agribusiness Research Centre Dr Claus Deblitz. “I am convinced that investing in partnerships with experts and institutions pays off,” says Dr Deblitz. With 18 years experience in livestock and beef economics and conducting agricultural benchmarking in countries such as Argentina, China and New Zealand, Dr Claus has brought his wife and two girls from their home country of Germany to start a new life in Australia. “We like Orange. The people are so friendly and welcoming.” Dr Claus is keen to hold small workshops with farmers and businesses to develop ideas for future research aimed at farmers’ needs. “I will then know what research requirements are needed to make a contribution to Australian agribusiness.”