A leading telecommunications analyst heads the speakers list at a free seminar to be held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Monday 31 October. Examining a critical issue for regional Australia, Paul Budde, Managing Director of BuddeComm, will draw on his company’s research to discuss the future of regional telecommunications from 9.25am to 10.25am in the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre near the CSU Winery, Wagga Wagga. His address will be followed by a roundtable discussion led by an expert panel including Dean of the University’s Faculty of Science and Agriculture, Professor Jim Pratley, Executive Director of the CSU Division of Information Technology, Mike Rebbechi and Managing Director of the Commercial Response Unit in Wagga Wagga, Gary Wells. The seminar will be held from 9.15am to 12noon and will cover a range of topics including the sale of Telstra, the $2 billion Regional Telecommunications Fund, broadband and new business opportunities as well as developments in telecommunications.

More than 500 policing students will graduate from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Policing Studies and the Australian Graduate School of Policing this Friday, 28 October. The ceremony will begin at 10.30am at the Sports Centre, Sydney Olympic Park and will feature an occasional address by Mr Kevin Kitson, Director of Intelligence with the Australian Crime Commission. A highlight of the ceremony will be the graduation of fire investigation students – the result of a successful collaboration between NSW Fire Brigades and CSU. New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney, will present the Diploma of Policing Practice graduates with their awards and five prize winners will be announced.

Academic cooperation between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and a university in southern Taiwan has been formalised by the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The document was signed by CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter and President of the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Professor Chang-Hung Chou. While links have already been established in the areas of plant protection and equine studies, the academic cooperation between the institutions could include joint research programs, exchange of academic staff and students or the organisation of joint activities such as courses, conferences, seminars or lectures. The MOU was signed during a visit in late August to CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus by Professor Chou.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will launch a new comprehensive leadership development program for women staff this Monday 6 February. Australian universities record low numbers of women in senior management positions, with national figures showing just 11 per cent of women hold professorial positions. The CSU Leadership Development for Women Program will run throughout 2006 and commences with a week of activities being held from Monday 6 February to Friday 10 February. Guest speakers who will give presentations on their experience of moving into leadership positions include:  Dr Jeane McConachie, Director Division of Teaching and Learning Services, Central Queensland University; Ms Sarah Davies, Vice-President Student Affairs, Swinburne University; and Professor Margaret Sheil, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at University of Wollongong. Associate Professor Marian Tulloch, Director CSU's Centre for Enhancing, Learning and Teaching or CELT will officially launch the program at 2 pm Monday 6 February in the Foundation Rooms, Centre for Professional Development on CSU’s Bathurst Campus.

“Lazarus with a triple bypass”. The year was 1989, and John Howard had just lost the Opposition leadership. One reporter at the media conference asked him if he felt like a “political corpse”, another if he thought he could ever regain the leadership. How did John Howard go from that moment in political time, to today marking his tenth year in office with four straight election wins, making him Australia’s second-longest serving Prime Minister? Dr Wayne Errington (left), Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies at Charles Sturt University (CSU) is currently writing a biography about John Howard, and will present a paper to a weekend conference looking at Mr Howard’s skill as a politician and his refusal to succumb to political rejection. “He’s grown as a politician, he’s a much more calm person than he was 10 or 15 years ago, he’s much more measured in his policies, he’s prepared to compromise to get things through the senate or to mollify public opinion, and that’s a recipe for a much more successful conservative politician.” Dr Errington’s paper also examines all the elements that have led to John Howard’s remarkable four election wins.

The story of two women living on "a knife's edge" in the Villawood Detention Centre has won an inaugural international broadcasting award for former Charles Sturt University (CSU) student Kirsti Melville. The Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Programme was presented to Ms Melville by Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International at a ceremony in New Delhi. The Radio National documentary is described as "the human story behind the federal government's stance on deporting long-term visa overstayers". Ms Melville, a 1994 graduate with a BA Communication (Broadcast Journalism), says it was a compelling program "because their stories were equally moving and powerful as those of refugees, but they are voices you don't hear very often. I think it was one of the first times I felt like I had had a little bit of an impact. You become very aware of your responsibilities as a journalist and to the people involved." The news that she won came as a surprise, "I was completely gob smacked, and on top of that to find out I was going to India in two weeks to accept the Award was mind-blowing." Kirsti's next documentary is about ageing Holocaust survivors in nursing homes in Sydney.

The Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (ACCC) and the Friends of Ireland will hold their third annual ecumenical service on Friday March 17 to remember the legend and history of St Patrick and its continuing significance for Australians today. “For better or worse, Irish identity has always been related to religious expression,” said CSU Professor of Theology, Reverend James Haire. He will conduct the ecumenical service at the ACCC chapel on the corner of Kings Avenue and Blackall Street in Barton, ACT at 12.30pm. Federal Labor Senator Ursula Stephens, a Catholic and one of two Irish-born Australian senators, will speak on the place of the Irish in contemporary Australia and how Australians might celebrate St Patrick’s Day and their Irish heritage while acknowledging the pain of the past for Irish people

Last week the Federal Government announced its high-profile appointments to the Youth Mental Health Foundation Advisory Board to advise on ways to improve access to mental health services for the nation’s 12 to 25-year-olds. Experts agree that young people in Australia are increasingly troubled by various forms of mental disorder, including Dr Lynelle Osburn, a lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. “Why is it a growing problem? One reason is an increasing intolerance of kids who are a bit different.” She says the vulnerable are easy to recognise. “Young people who leave home in an unplanned way, are isolated, are taking extreme risks or have substance abuse problems, who have eating or stress disorders. There is a growing number of young people who are on medications like amphetamines or Ritalin, or using various party drugs.” Another CSU academic Dr Janki Shankar, lecturer in mental health also in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, is on the Australian Association of Social Workers Mental Health Interest Group. She says “the current system is failing because of a lack of support services, particularly in rural areas. There are hardly any psycho-social rehabilitation programs that are targeted to youth, there’s almost nothing for people who need early intervention services.”

A leading group of veterinary educators has given their stamp of approval to Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) veterinary course, the first such course offered in regional Australia. The Veterinary Science Accreditation Advisory Committee which visited CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus last week has recommended accreditation for the University’s new Bachelor of Veterinary Science degree. The committee of six veterinary practitioners and academics from Australian and New Zealand universities will recommend to the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council that they provide provisional accreditation of CSU’s veterinary program. CSU’s first dedicated building for veterinary science, the $4.5 million Pre-Clinical Centre for teaching anatomy and physiology, was formally handed over to staff and students last week. Professor Kym Abbott, Director of Veterinary Science at CSU, said the accreditation committee praised the high quality of staff and facilities and the strong support given to the new program by the University.