A final year advertising student at the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Communication will complete her studies and start her career with a 10-week internship in New York working for BBDO Worldwide, one the largest advertising agencies in the world. The scholarship recipient, Ms Mary-Jane Barca, praised the calibre and support of her CSU lecturers in the Bachelor of Arts (Communication-Advertising) and the many opportunities presented by the course. “They have always encouraged me to reach beyond the stars, including applying for this scholarship. I’m so glad I did,” she said. Ms Barca was the team leader of the School’s in-house Kajulu Communication advertising agency whose ‘Lynx’ campaign for the 2007/2008 Inter-Ad competition came second in the world and first in the Asia-Pacific region. She has also won a 2009 Media Federation of Australia (MFA) Trainee Program position. “When I get back from New York I will go straight to work with OMD (part of BBDO Worldwide), the biggest media agency in Sydney, so getting a position there is a massive thing,” she said.

Construction of the new 200-bed residential development for Charles Sturt University (CSU) students is nearly complete on the University’s Thurgoona site, and CSU students and staff will be able to inspect some of the new facilities on Thursday 20 November. On completion, ten modular concrete and corrugated iron buildings will each house 20 students in self-catering accommodation. The development will include ‘open plan’ kitchens and living areas in each block, with two buildings enclosing an open courtyard. The corrugated iron, which is light, strong, adaptable and durable, shields the internal concrete walls from the summer heat, enabling the buildings to maintain a more constant temperature without the use of expensive air conditioning. Rainwater collected from roofs will be used to flush toilets, while wastewater, or ‘grey water’, from kitchens and bathrooms will be pumped into the existing grey water treatment ponds on the Thurgoona site. Three buildings totalling 120 beds will be completed by the start of the academic year in February 2009, with a further 80 beds to be ready by April.

The Charles Sturt University (CSU) 2007 Shiraz was one of only four wines to be awarded a Gold Medal in the 2007 Shiraz class at the 2008 Royal Melbourne Wine Show on Thursday 13 November and has now been released through the Cellar Door. The CSU 2007 Shiraz was produced with grapes from the University’s vineyard in Orange and was the only NSW wine to be nominated for this year’s Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show. The wine had already been awarded bronze medals at the Orange Wine Show in October and the Riverina Wine Show in September. “The University is delighted with the gold medal in recognition of the quality of our 2007 Shiraz,” said winemaker, Mr Andrew Drumm. “It was also a great achievement to be among the small number of red wines nominated from 660 other Australian one year old red wines for the Jimmy Watson Trophy.”

Two Australian artists have donated almost 50 prints to the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Art Collection. The artists, Dr Guy Warren from Sydney, and Ms Chayni Henry from Milner near Darwin, donated the prints to the University through the Commonwealth's Committee on Taxation Incentives for the Arts. The works will hang in the 2009 exhibitions, Mono Uno: Monotype mark making within the CSU Art Collection and More Beasties, helping to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of CSU in 2009. Dr Warren donated two traditional 1958 oil monotypes and 14 watercolour monotypes from the early 1980s and seven related prints. Ms Henry has donated the entire Rona Green-curated print portfolio Beasties 2005/6. The portfolio includes the work of printmakers Rosalind Atkins, Milan Milojevic, Rew Hanks, Rebecca Mayo, Stephen Spurrier and Murray Walker. “The gifts, valued at almost $60 000, are a timely contemporary injection to the University’s Art Collection which already holds the minutea print exchange portfolio curated by Ms Green in 2000,” said CSU Art Curator Mr Thomas Middlemost.

Final year advertising and advertising/marketing students at the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Communication will benefit from a fourth scholarship offered by OMD Media. Announcing the $2 500 scholarship, the Head of the School and advertising course co-ordinator, Associate Professor Rod McCulloch, said, “This scholarship augments three existing scholarships from OMD Media, OMD Digital and DDB Advertising. It provides monetary recognition to the student and a guaranteed internship at OMD that could lead to the offer of a full-time position. It’s classic win-win; the School is able to offer support to our best students, and OMD gets the first opportunity to employ them.” OMD is one of Australia’s largest media agencies, and the scholarship, which is endowed on behalf of its new strategic media planning company PHD, will be available from 2009.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) has contributed in the creation of a new resource to help farmers in the battle against one of Australia’s most noxious weeds, serrated tussock. The Serrated Tussock Best Practice Management Manual and a supporting resource CD was launched today, Tuesday 25 November. “Up-to-date information on the best practices to control and manage the spread of serrated tussock is a key to successful management,” said Mr Scott Chirnside, Chair of the National Serrated Tussock Management Group. The new manual collates information on control and management options. CSU School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences research fellow, Dr Aaron Simmons said, ”Lower wool prices mean people work off farm and have less time to control serrated tussock. This manual will provide farmers with most of the information they need but they do need to consider how the information reflects their individual circumstance.”

Annual ryegrass with herbicide resistance is now common in southern NSW, according to collaborative research between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) recently completed at the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation. In studies conducted from Dubbo in the state’s central west, to the Victorian border in the south, and east-west between the Hume and Newell highways, researchers Mr John Broster and Mr Eric Koetz have found high levels of resistance in ryegrass to widely used herbicides. Director of the EH Graham Centre, Professor Deirdre Lemerle, said these findings show a large increase since the last thorough survey was conducted in 1991. “Around 80 per cent of paddocks surveyed in 2007 had significant levels of resistance to Group A ‘fops’ herbicides, while resistance to Group B ‘SU’ herbicides are in 65 to 70 per cent of paddocks.” Professor Lemerle said 17 years ago, only 10 to 15 per cent of paddocks had ryegrass with resistance to these herbicides. “These high levels of resistance reinforce the importance of developing and introducing new non-chemical weed control techniques into our weed management strategies,” she said. The research is part of a larger survey across the wheat-belt, funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

About 80 prospective Canadian students attended a recent information session for the 2009 intake of the Bachelor of Primary Education Studies at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Ontario. The session was addressed by the Head of School, Associate Professor Will Letts, course coordinator Ms Mary Marshall, Provost and Special Adviser CSU Ontario, Professor Bob Meyenn, and alumni who shared their experiences. Professor Toni Downes, Dean of the Faculty of Education, said the course is now in its fourth year, and is undoubtedly a cutting-edge, world-class teacher education program. “Staff in the program were hand-picked and are of the highest calibre. We have deliberately maintained a balance between Australian and Canadian staff, as well as academic and professional expertise,” she said. Applications for the Autumn (Fall) 2009 student intake, which starts in August, close on Friday 24 April 2009.

Up to half of rural properties are expected to change hands in the next 10 years, according to a Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher studying the increasing levels of rural property turnover. “Over the past 10 years a quarter of rural properties have been sold, and this will increase up to 50 per cent in the next 10 years,” says CSU PhD student Ms Emily Mendham. “This change is being driven by the age of farmers who are approaching retirement and the demand for rural properties.” Ms Mendham’s findings are based on case studies in the traditional farming region of the Wimmera in western Victoria, and closer to Melbourne in the Corangamite region. Both regions have different influences on their changing demographics, and both present different opportunities and challenges. Ms Mendham will speak at ‘The changing nature of our rural neighbourhoods’ forum at the CD Blake Theatre on CSU’s Thurgoona site on Wednesday 26 November, from 9am to 3pm. The free forum will be hosted by the University’s Institute for Land, Water and Society.