The problem of child sex tourism will be discussed at a workshop at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury on Monday 12 February. “The purpose of the workshop is to achieve some consensus on what Australia is doing to respond to this problem in the Asia-Pacific region, and how strategies and responses can be better focused and improved”, said CSU lecturer in tourism and workshop convenor Dr Sallie Yea. Invited speakers include representatives from the Australian Federal Police, AusAID, Australian Institute of Criminology, University of Technology Sydney, ChildWise, and CSU. The workshop will be held in the Administration Building boardroom at the CSU Thurgoona Campus in Albury between 9.30 am - 4.30 pm. The morning sessions of the workshop will be open to CSU staff and the general public, at a cost of $20 to cover catering, but places are limited. For more information please contact Dr Sallie Yea, Lecturer in the School of Business and Information Technology, on 0419 530 058 or (02) 6051 9921.

“This course will help solve the issues surrounding the rural health crisis,” says Charles Sturt University (CSU) Bachelor of Clinical Sciences course coordinator Dr Deborah Burton. Dr Burton is looking forward to the first week of university study on Monday 26 February when the Clinical Sciences course begins. The Bachelor of Clinical Science is offered from the Orange Campus of CSU and has been established in collaboration with the University of Sydney's Faculty of Dentistry and Faculty of Medicine. “It’s the only course of its kind that provides a specific education pathway from the undergraduate CSU degree into the University of Sydney graduate entry programs for eligible graduates.” The Bachelor of Clinical Science has been developed with curriculum specifically designed to meet the expectations of graduate entry dentistry, medicine and other health programs across Australia. Places are still available for 2007 enrolments. For more information contact CSU on 1800 334 733 or visit www.csu.edu.au 

Are we riding the rails of success or running off the track? That answer could be found at The Future Frameworks for Regional Rail symposium, hosted by the Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA). To be held on Thursday 1 February 2007 at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, the symposium will examine what can be done to rejuvenate regional rail transport. CSU’s Associate Professor Ian Gray and speakers from Canada and across Australia will address representatives of the rail industry, regional communities, industry and government, sharing ideas on how to keep rail networks viable and on track in regional areas. CSU’s Professor Ian Gray says, “trains offer a huge carrying capacity, trucks offer flexibility, so it makes sense to combine the benefits of both”. Professor Gray believes, “rail could make a comeback by combining with road transport to create an integrated system, if planning and management was done at a regional level”.

Do you have recent experience in giving birth in rural or remote NSW? The Charles Sturt University (CSU) midwifery research team is looking to interview women who usually live at least an hour’s travel by road from their nearest maternity unit and who, in the last two years, needed to move from their local community to give birth. Dr Elaine Dietsch, senior lecturer in Midwifery at CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus, says that in less than a generation, many hospital maternity units in rural and remote NSW have temporarily or permanently closed, with many women no longer able to give birth closer to home. “We are keen to hear about the experiences of the women who are most affected by the closures of maternity units, because their experiences need to be understood to inform midwifery practice and influence health policy in rural and remote NSW, ” Dr Dietsch said. To contribute your experiences to this research, please contact Elaine Dietsch on 02 6933 2782 or send an email.

Tennis lovers rejoiced yesterday when the Australian Open got underway in Melbourne. The Open marks the beginning of the tournament year for tennis players, so for the past eight weeks, they have been concentrating on reaching peak fitness, according to Dr Rob Duffield, lecturer in the School of Human Movement at Charles Sturt University (CSU). Once the frenetic pace of the tournament year gets underway, “It becomes quite difficult to find time for physical conditioning, so a lot of tennis coaches and tennis players do their fitness work on court using practice drills. The problem with these drills is that you don’t really know what’s going on,” said Dr Duffield, who spent part of last year quantifying the physical responses to popular tennis drills. His results will be published soon, and will be beneficial to tennis coaches. “Coaches can say well, this kind of drill is very aerobic and will improve physical fitness, while that kind of drill will increase shot velocity and shot accuracy,” he said.

Former US vice-president Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth, which details the affects of global warming, has become the third-highest grossing documentary in the United States to date. It seems the film’s message is not lost on Australian audiences either, according to Dr Mark Morrison from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Marketing and Management, Bathurst Campus. He is working on a CSIRO project looking at the value the community has for reducing global warming.”We are measuring the community’s willingness to sacrifice future income to mitigate the affects of global warming. It is very interesting - we are finding that although about ten per cent of people don’t want to sacrifice any income, there is a very large proportion who don‘t care about the cost, they just want it fixed.” He says the preliminary findings were presented at a conference in New Delhi recently.

After six months teaching Year Seven students in a small American curriculum school, Charles Sturt University graduate Lijana Poga decided to switch to volunteer work in an impoverished area south of Manilla in the Philippines. There she found herself working with kindergarten students and developmentally delayed orphans in an unusual classroom setting – a rubbish dump. She was living with an Australian family who run a mission organisation which provides food and schooling to 1 000 children. “I started sponsoring a girl while I was at school and always wanted to volunteer. I decided to go to university and study Education so I had something to offer.” Lijana has returned to Dubbo where she will be teaching in the city’s West. “I’d just like to tell other Education students that there are so many opportunities out there from teaching from international schools to volunteer work. It’s definitely worth looking into.”

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) National Radio News (NRN) was Highly Commended in the ‘Excellence in the Spoken Word’ category by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) at its annual conference in November 2006. NRN manager, Mr Peter Hetherington, said “The highly commended award is a well deserved result for the whole NRN team which consists of only three full-time journalists and six casual cadets who are CSU communications students.” Mr Hetherington said this was the first time in several years NRN has entered in any awards. “It lifted the morale of the staff to be competing on a national level, with the standard of the NRN entries very high. It also showcased the ability of cadet staff to a broader audience, and demonstrates the unique news experience NRN offers to students who are selected for cadetships.”

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) student has made his mark on one of Australia’s premier cycle races. Dean Windsor, who is currently studying Primary Education, won the fourth stage and came fourth overall in points in the five-day Jayco Bay Cycling Classic. The Classic is the world’s fastest criterium series according to organisers. Dean says he is delighted to have done so well. “All the professionals race this, and it is important to get a win early in the season. It is quite a top quality field and a top class event.” Next up is the Road National, a 150 kilometre race around Ballarat, and Dean says he is looking forward to a trip to Europe later this year, as well as “a few tours in Asia. My CSU lecturers are very supportive, so it is possible to combine my studies with the cycling,” he said.