A short film by Charles Sturt University (CSU) adjunct senior lecturer in history Dr Robin McLachlan will have its first public test screening on Wednesday 2 November. The 20 minute-long film, The Letter, stars another CSU adjunct lecturer, Mr Bill Blaikey (and his co-star dog, Merry), from the School of Communication in Bathurst. Dr McLachlan said the film developed from and is part of his international research into the participation by Australians and New Zealanders in the 1897-99 Klondike gold rush in north-west Canada. “This was the first significant wave of Australians and New Zealanders to leave the southern hemisphere to seek their fortunes in the northern hemisphere. During the course of my research I found numerous letters from them to home, as well as a unique complete run of a Dawson City, Canada, newspaper, The Klondyke Miner and Yukon Advertiser, held by the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia,” Dr McLachlan said. “The script for The Letter is based closely on historical evidence from first-hand accounts published in Australian newspapers at the time, as well as information gleaned from Yukon archives and published histories.”

Radio 2MCE, the community broadcasting service operated on behalf of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst, was recently named an award winner at the annual Community Broadcasting Association of Australia national conference at the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane on 20-22 November. Ms Michelle O’Connor, the Programming and Production Coordinator at 2MCE who was present to accept the award, said staff at the station were very pleased to be recognised by their sector peers in winning the ‘Most Innovative Outside Broadcast or Special Event Broadcast’ award for 2MCE’s Sounds Live project in 2009. “Sounds Live was a live music festival, and a major live-broadcast feat for a community radio station. It featured the Sounds Live Cabaret, held in conjunction with Local Stages and Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, the Sounds Live Acoustic concert at the CSU Ponton Theatre, and more than 15 live-to-air performances from our 2MCE studio. During the week we heard jazz, classical, acoustic, cabaret, dance, folk and country music from local musicians and two live concerts broadcast on 2MCE,” Ms O’Connor said.

The Rafters Bar at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst throbbed with the sound of camaraderie on Sunday night 29 November when hundreds of Australian and international road-based gravity sports champions and competitors celebrated with their families and supporters at the 2009 Newton’s Playground party and presentation ceremony following three days of world-class thrills and spills on the neighbouring Mount Panorama motor racing circuit. About 200 competitors from every state in Australia and from Norway, Canada, Switzerland, Britain, the United States, France and Malaysia gathered for the second Newton’s Playground, a world championship event for skateboard, street luge, in-line skates, and gravity bikes staged at Mount Panorama under the auspices of the Australian Skateboard Racing Association (ASRA) and the International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA). One of the event organisers, Mr James Hopkin, from Hopkin Skate, said the aim was to develop Newton’s Playground year by year, and that meant choosing a date when CSU students were in town. “We love Mount Panorama and Bathurst, and want to engage the Bathurst community as we develop this great event. That also means involving Charles Sturt University students as potential competitors, spectators and support workers. For example, former CSU student Mr David Robinson, who graduated from the CSU School of Communication in Bathurst in 1988, played a leading technical role by enabling videoing and live web-casting of the event,” Mr Hopkin said. CSU Student Services Officer, Ms Alex Leis, who liaised with the organisers for their four-day post-competition use of The Rafters Bar food and beverage facilities, said it was a happy collaboration to have the gravity racers use the CSU facilities.

Final year high school students around Australia are receiving their final results and making big decisions about their futures - What do I want to do? Do I study or work next year? Where do I study? Charles Sturt University (CSU) is helping these students make informed decisions with a series of Change of Preference Information Sessions on all campuses next week. CSU Market Development Manager Ms Cheryl Howell says these sessions will help students and their parents think about study options for 2010 at CSU, with academics and support staff available for discussions. "If prospective students want to discuss our courses, preference options, school results or living and learning at CSU, they can attend one of these sessions being run throughout the University's region," said Ms Howell. Victorian students can call CSU on (02) 6051 9962 or 1800 334 733 to discuss their options before their change of preference period closes.

Having worked diligently to ensure Year 12 students had access to the best possible resources, the Charles Sturt University (CSU) NSW HSC Online website  team has taken time out to congratulate students who worked hard to receive notable results in their NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) last week. "While creating this website, the NSW Department of Education and Training and Charles Sturt University were keenly aware of the crucial information this website delivers to students studying for the HSC," said NSW HSC Online coordinator and CSU senior lecturer Dr Deb Clarke. "It’s wonderful to know our resources helped students gain the marks they wanted in the HSC.” The NSW HSC Online developers are now reviewing the site to ensure the next group of students studying for the HSC can access quality education resources for 50 HSC subjects in 2010. “Each month the website delivered up to 1.65 million pages to students, teachers and parents and we believe this will increase in 2010.”

The School of Human Movement Studies and the Western Region Academy of Sport (WRAS) at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst received a 2009 NSW Sports Safety Award at a ceremony in Sydney on Friday 13 November. Dr Stephen Bird, lecturer at the School of Human Movement Studies accepted the award on behalf of the program partners for the joint initiative. “The CSU/WRAS Strength and Conditioning Internship (SCI) Program received the Bronze Award for outstanding education and promotion of sports safety for its Strength and Conditioning Internship (SCI) Program,” Dr Bird said. “The program began in 2006, and offers final-year human movement studies students the opportunity for internship placement. The program aims to provide strength and conditioning interns with scientific knowledge and programming expertise that enables the continued development of pre-elite youth athletes to train systematically and safely to improve sports performance and reduce the risk of injury.”

The CSU Media team welcomes you to 2010. We hope you had a safe and enjoyable holiday season, and that the year ahead is a healthy one.

Students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) have voted a lecturer at the School of Biomedical Sciences in Bathurst as CSU 2009 Lecturer of the Year. Ms Veronica Madigan won the accolade in a nation-wide poll open to all academics and students at the 38 universities in Australia. Dr John Harper, the Sub-Dean, Learning and Teaching, in the CSU Faculty of Science, said, “It is wonderful that students have gone out of their way to vote Veronica as their top lecturer at CSU for 2009. She continues to make a lasting, positive impression on her students and is an inspiration to us all.” Ms Madigan said, “As a person who is passionate about my teaching, there are only two things that really matter to me: the success of my students, and their appreciation of what I try to do for them. For them to say ‘thank you’ in this way is just the greatest thrill for me.”

At the invitation of the Vice-Chancellor and President of Charles Sturt University (CSU), Professor Ian Goulter, the Federal Member for Macquarie, The Hon. Mr Bob Debus, MP, will inspect progress in the construction of the new Dental and Oral Health Clinic at the CSU campus in Bathurst at 10am on Friday 22 January. Mr Debus and Professor Goulter will be accompanied by the Head of Campus, Mr Col Sharp, Dr Sabrina Manickam, senior lecturer and the External Relations Coordinator at the School of Dentistry and Oral Health, and representatives of Joss Constructions, the contractor undertaking the project. “I’m excited by progress with the CSU Dental and Oral Health Clinic in Bathurst because, when it is opened to the public later in 2010, we’ll contribute to improving patients’ access to dental services in the region, as we will for other communities in regional Australia,” Professor Goulter said.