The National Council on Intellectual Disability (NCID) has given Charles Sturt University (CSU) the ‘thumbs up’ for its management of the NCID’s Wings Away library collection on intellectual disability. This relationship is set to continue with a new agreement to be signed at the Albury-Wodonga Campus Library in Albury on Thursday 22 November at 1.30pm.  The agreement covers the ongoing hosting of the NCID Wings Away collection by CSU, continued free interlibrary loans for NCID and an annual donation of $1 500 to further develop the collection. The Wings Away collection, named after the group of former Australian flight attendants who set up the collection, was transferred from NCID to CSU in mid 1997.  The collection consisted of over 3 000 books and journals on intellectual disability and benefits students in CSU’s habilitation and other allied health courses. Representative from CSU, NCID and Wings Away will attend the signing ceremony.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders will have the chance to “test drive” university life later this month when the annual Koori Admissions Program (KAP) is held at Charles Sturt University (CSU). The program will be run at the Dubbo Campus from Monday 26 until Thursday 29 November and offers potential Aboriginal students the opportunity to experience university life while being assessed on their skills. Participants can also meet with staff at the University’s Indigenous Support Units, which offer academic and personal support to Indigenous students. The Units are located at the Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo, Goulburn and Wagga Wagga campuses. “This program, which is an alternate entry to CSU, gives potential Aboriginal students the chance to see if university life is for them in a supportive and caring environment,” said Mr Ray Eldridge, Manager of the Indigenous Support Units at CSU. Current Indigenous students will also discuss how CSU has met their needs and aspirations with CSU’s KAP staff.

A newly appointed Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer with the School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences in Wagga Wagga has received accolades from a prestigious international veterinary publication. Mr Jan Lievaart, now based at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, has won the annual award for the best scientific article published in the Journal of the Royal Dutch Veterinary Association, the equivalent of the Australian Veterinary Association. The paper, Transvaginal aspiration as the primary treatment of follicular cysts in dairy cattle, was published in 2006 and is a result of research collaboration between veterinarians in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Director of Veterinary Science, Professor Kym Abbott says the award reflects the high standard of research Mr Lievaart will undertake while at CSU. Mr Lievaart is a lecturer in veterinary epidemiology and his research interests are lameness and mastitis in dairy cattle and herd health programs related to general food safety.  

The medical fraternity of inland NSW has a rare opportunity to hear from a world leader in cardiac research when the Medical Director of the Cardiac Health Institute in Sydney, Professor Hosen Kiat visits the Riverina this week. Professor Kiat will be at the Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Wagga Wagga Campus on Friday 9 November to present a seminar to CSU staff entitled Preventing Heart Attacks without Prescription. The Professor of Cardiology will also attend a Nuclear Medicine scientific conference at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 November. Professor Kiat, who is also a specialist in nuclear medicine, has over 200 scientific publications and several books including The Eastwest Medical Makeover, which provides a blueprint for longevity and a robust life style, based on his long term passion in the eastern philosophy and his profound knowledge in western medicine. Professor Kiat believes “it’s not about life expectancy, but a greater expectancy for life”. 

The changing focus of early childhood education, cyber bullying and the impact of advertising on children’s health are some of the topics to be discussed at a conference on Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Dubbo Campus next week. Ms Tracey Simpson, Head of the School of Teacher Education at CSU’s Dubbo Campus, said that the conference is one way that the University maintains its links with the broader education community and offers teacher education students authentic learning experiences. A range of presenters, including Ms Pam Cahir, CEO of Early Childhood Australia, Ms Simpson and fourth year honours and third year early childhood and primary education students, will also discuss the effects of advertising on children’s health, quality teaching and gender stereotyping in education. The conference is jointly sponsored by CSU and the Central Far West Regional Group of Early Childhood Australia.

Explorations of body language in children with autism, surviving car accidents with traumatic brain injuries and working in rural schools and in Vietnam are among the topics in a Charles Sturt University (CSU) conference on the latest in speech pathology, to be held on Wednesday 7 and Thursday 8 November in Albury. The two day conference, titled Searching for Treasure, the hunt for evidence and experience in rural Australia, is hosted by 35 final year speech pathology students from CSU who will present workshops on various topics relating to current practices in speech pathology. Guests include Dr Shani Dettman, who will present an overview of research on speech and language development in young children with Cochlear implants, and the group “Wild Choir”, young performers who show that having a disability is no limit to your singing ability. Searching for Treasure will be held in the Nowik lecture theatres on CSU’s Albury city site, Guinea St, Albury, starting at 3pm on 7 November.

Doctoral and masters students and early-career researchers from universities, government agencies and private institutes involved in environmental and resource economic research are expected to attend a two day forum next week at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Associate Professor Mark Morrison, from CSU’s School of Marketing and Management, said that the Early-Career Researcher Workshop, known as E-CReW, aims to provide a forum for early-career researchers to get feedback on their research in a supportive and non-threatening environment. “Researchers can interact with and get advice from more experienced academics, as well as meet with other researchers at a similar stage of their careers. It also provides a forum for employers to meet new graduates or those who are soon to graduate, and for research agencies to discuss current research needs,” he said. E-CReW 2007 is hosted by the University’s Institute for Land Water and Society (ILWS) at the University’s Bathurst Campus on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 November. Approximately 70 participants from six countries are expected to attend.

Works by the late art lecturer at the Mitchell College of Advanced Education (MCAE, Bathurst), Ms Jo Ross will be auctioned on Friday 9 November to raise funds for environmental projects in the Bathurst area. Ms Ross lectured at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) predecessor institution, MCAE, in the 1970s and 80s. According to former Bathurst mayor Peta Gurdon-Meara, Ms Ross “enjoyed watching the University grow in stature, reputation and enrolments”. She later served as a councillor on Bathurst City Council for four years from 1992. Her sons, Ben and Steve Ross, have requested that their mother’s art legacy be used to benefit specific environmental projects carried out by the organisation Greening Bathurst.

The Dean of the Faculty of Education at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Australia, Professor Toni Downes will deliver the occasional address at a ceremony in Hong Kong this Sunday 28 October 2007. Almost 130 graduates will be eligible to receive their awards from CSU during the ceremony in the Langham Place Hotel, Mong Kok, Hong Kong from 10.30am. Many of the graduating students have completed their studies under an international collaboration between CSU and The University of Hong Kong - SPACE. Also attending the ceremony will  be the Chancellor of CSU, Mr Lawrence Willett AO, who will present the awards to the graduates.The courses range from accountancy, human resource management, information  technology ,library and information management, teacher librarianship, nursing and pathology.