With the NSW equine industry given the all-clear following the outbreak of equine flu that threatened the national horse industry, Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Equine Centre is back in business. Centre manager Ms Cheryl Gander is excited to have the Centre up and running again. “The Orange Campus Equine Centre provides the perfect location for students to be involved in all aspects of horse enterprise management, including breeding, training for different disciplines, show and sale preparation, different handling techniques and research,” Ms Gander said. The Centre, which is part of the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences, has an indoor and outdoor arena, exercise track, cross country course, treadmill, horse walker, stables, veterinary laboratory and 80 hectares of horse pastures. For enquiries regarding agistment, breeding and facility hire, contact Ms Gander on 02 6365 7850.

The new President of Yunnan University of Economics and Finance in China, Professor Rong Wang, will visit Charles Sturt University (CSU) tomorrow, Friday 4 April. Dean of the Faculty of Business, Professor John Hicks, said that China is the world’s fastest-growing economy, and it is vitally important that CSU is involved with the country. “Yunnan University is a strategic partner of CSU for the delivery of business studies courses to international students overseas. It’s significant that the new President of our partner institution is prepared to travel to Bathurst to see what CSU looks like and to meet CSU senior executives. The programs we now present in China are quite novel and we are trying a very different approach in terms of off-shore education.” On Friday Professor Wang will meet Faculty of Business academic staff and tour the Bathurst Campus before attending a dinner with CSU Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Ian Goulter and Faculty members.

People interested in the history of newspaper publishing in Bathurst are invited to attend a public lecture at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at 6pm on Wednesday 2 April. Ms Margaret Van Heekeren, an associate lecturer in journalism at the CSU School of Communication, will present Crossing the Great Divide - the 160th Anniversary of Newspaper Publishing in Bathurst, the story of the first 18 months of newspaper publishing in inland Australia. “In late 1847, newspaper editor and printer Benjamin Isaacs transported the first printing press over the Blue Mountains, and on 5 February 1848 the first newspaper was published in Bathurst,” Ms Van Heekeren said. “This was a turbulent time of transition for Bathurst, as the colonial community began to transform from a frontier outpost into a formalised settlement and trading centre. It laid the foundation for 160 years of continuous newspaper publishing in Australia’s oldest inland settlement.”

The NSW Central West Regional 2020 Summit will be held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst this Saturday 5 April, ahead of the Federal Government’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra later this month. The co-host of the local 2020 summit, CSU Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Ian Goulter, said “I am delighted that the University is hosting this forum because this is an important opportunity for local people to contribute their thoughts and ideas to help to shape a long term strategy for the nation’s future. The local summit will discuss the same 10 key areas as Australia 2020 Summit – the productivity agenda, the nation’s infrastructure, our environment, our farmers, healthcare, Indigenous Australians, the arts, national security, improving the system of government and strengthening our communities. I urge everyone to participate if they are able to.” The outcomes of the Central West Regional 2020 Summit will be formally submitted to the national summit for discussion.  

Students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) have raised almost $7 000 for charity during Orientation 2008. Students, representing CSU’s student body, recently presented a cheque for over $6 800 to NRMA CareFlight, a rapid response critical care service. CareFlight duty doctor, Dr Andrew Dubky, received the cheque on behalf of the organisation. “Last year students across five CSU campuses raised more than $1 200 for the Salvation Army Drought Appeal," CSU Student Services representative, Ms Jean Ryan said. "Raising such a large sum of money this year was a testament to how hard our continuing students worked during Orientation 2008 while making the first year students feel welcome.”  

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is seeking healthy volunteers from the Bathurst district to participate in a research exercise program. Dr Jack Cannon, a lecturer in motor control and learning at CSU’s School of Human Movement Studies, said the aim of the exercise program is to improve the strength and the quality of life of participants aged over 65 years. “The program requires participants to do whole-body strength training for about one and a half hours, twice a week. The 12 week exercise program will run from Monday 14 April to Friday 11 July,” Dr Cannon said. “Participants will start with comprehensive assessments of body composition, muscle and nerve function, and quality of life assessments. They may also be involved in focus group interviews to discuss their attitudes towards the program. Throughout the program each participant will have a CSU student to act as their personal trainer and to assist them to perform the exercises. We are also seeking volunteers 65 years and older to participate as a ‘control group’ who will not do the exercise program, but will be involved in the assessments in April and July.”

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor David Kemp has taken another step to ensure agriculturalists and the Orange community are better informed about coping with climate change, especially climate variability and its effects on food security, in a public seminar to be held in Orange on Monday 31 March. “The consequences of variable and changing climates are rising energy and food costs, so much so that in the last nine months another 800 million people couldn’t afford the food they need,” said Professor Kemp. “The recent drought also highlighted the social problems of dealing with variable climates – what are the effects and what needs to be done to better help people?” CSU’s Professor Margaret Alston will be one speaker at the public seminar, entitled ‘Managing Beyond the Panic of Climate Change’. The seminar aims to discuss these interrelated trends – to inform people about likely regional, Australian and international trends, what can be done to adjust to these major trends and what people in central NSW can do to ensure their livelihoods under these changing circumstances. The seminar will be held from 10am on 31 March at the Orange Ex-Services Club, Anson Street, Orange.

Improved understanding of livestock reproductive behaviour is important for optimal animal management, economics and welfare. The theory is that livestock behavioural traits have evolved similarly to physical traits, in response to evolutionary pressures. A public lecture by Professor Peter Chenoweth, from the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, will look at whether Darwin’s Theory of Evolution can be applied to the modern management of livestock. Only about 6 percent of hoofed animals have ever been domesticated. This figure raises questions as to why are there so relatively few species domesticated, and are certain evolutionary behavioural traits more conducive to domestication than others? The public lecture will also pose the questions as to whether humans chose to domesticate certain species, or vice versa, and can evolution provide guidelines for good livestock management? The lecture will be held from 6.30pm Tuesday 11 March at the Tumbarumba Shire Council Chambers, Bridge Street, Tumbarumba.

Ms Samantha Neal was one of half a dozen Charles Sturt University (CSU) public relations and organisational communication students to volunteer at the inaugural Newton’s Playground gravity sports festival on Mount Panorama in Bathurst in early March. Ms Neal worked with the media centre doing on-track liaison for the extreme sporting event. “Newton’s Playground is the first event of its kind and this is definitely a great experience for me for event management. Skateboards are not my thing but I loved it. It’s pretty crazy and pretty intense. I’ll definitely come back next year,” Ms Neal said. Mr Donald Alexander, senior lecturer in Public Relations and Organisational Communication and course coordinator at CSU’s School of Communication, said that events such as this one organised by Bathurst Regional Council, gives the students real hands-on experience which contributes to them graduating as ‘job ready’.