Charles Sturt University (CSU) is working with the combined Central NSW Councils (CENTROC) to offset skill shortages affecting local government. CSU has offered flexible education programs and additional support to local government staff in target areas such as management, information technology, business, finance, human resources, tourism and marketing. Pat Bradbery, Manager of the Professional Development Unit in the School of Management and Marketing at CSU Bathurst, says a residential school at CSU Dubbo, planned for February 2008, will help the prospective students to “kick-start their study and networking. It will provide access to advanced technology, lecturers and other learning skills support staff”. Mr Bradbery says that CSU already runs a “highly successful postgraduate week-long residential program in Bathurst for local government finance professionals, and the Bachelor of Management provided through the Orange Campus is very well suited to the local government sector. We are in an excellent position to help CENTROC overcome its skills shortage.”

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Djirruwang Program Bachelor of Health Science (Mental Health) aims to create a critical mass of highly skilled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners to deal with mental health problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This innovative program has been acknowledged by the NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Mental Health) the Hon. Paul Lynch, who described is as a “significant commitment” by CSU. Mr Lynch’s comments came during the official launch of the NSW Aboriginal Mental Health and Well Being Policy 2006-2010 last week on CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus. “The Djirruwang Program meets the national practice standards of the mental health workforce, making Charles Sturt University the first university course to use nationally agreed practice standards in mental health,” he said.

A Charles Sturt University PhD student, Debra Dunstan, has received a prestigious Churchill Fellowship which will allow her to travel to Canada and the United Kingdom. Her PhD examined intervention for pain related to work disability. Using WorkCover NSW guidelines, she developed a rural program to successfully move worker’s compensation recipients back to work. “Typically people are only treated in major metropolitan areas. This model turned out to be very effective. We had significant outcomes.” The Churchill Fellowship will allow her to travel to Canada to examine similar models, as well as the United Kingdom where the idea has been expanded to successfully move social security beneficiaries into work. “I hope to be able to work with governments to develop a community based treatment for people who are on disability support pensions, and that fits in with the Australian government’s Welfare to Work program.” Debra says of the Fellowship, “I was overwhelmed really, it is an honour and a privilege and a very exciting opportunity.”

“The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Art Collection will benefit enormously by the inclusion of this definitive painting by John Peart.  It an exceptional example of the artist’s work, that will serve as an integral part of their collection for generations to come,” says art valuer Randi Linnegar from King Street Galleries in Sydney. She was commenting on an artwork gift to CSU of an abstract painting, Muffled Rhythms 1984. CSU Art Curator Thomas Middlemost describes the “very large and important painting from a significant Sydney artist” as an “an intensely challenging artwork, which reflects the artist’s difficult path in the Australian art world. Muffled Rhythms, 1984 will exist as a ‘jewel in the crown’ of the University’s collection, which includes monotypes by Peart and paintings by James Gleeson, Emily Kngwarreye, to name a couple. The donation of this work will increase the standing of our important, nationally renowned art collection.”

Will nano-technology save the world or spell the end of civilisation? Professor John Weckert of Charles Sturt University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics says as well as those two groups of people with diametrically opposed view of this new technology, there is also a third viewpoint:  “These voices are trying to get the arguments into perspective so that the technology can be used in ways that are most beneficial.” Professor Weckert is the editor-in-chief of a new journal, NanoEthics. “It was thought that now is a good time to set up an academic journal that can be a forum for serious discussion of these issues,” said Professor Weckert. He says the journal is aimed at academics, philosophers, ethicists, policy makers and “people involved in regulation, many of whom are lawyers. It is very much a cross-disciplinary journal.”

An analysis of 14 existing studies on Echinacea, published last week in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, shows that the herbal remedy can cut the risk of catching a cold, and reduce the severity of a cold by up to a day-and-a-half. This comes as no surprise to Dr Philip Kerr, lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga Campus. “I’m a tincture rather than tablet man myself,” says Dr Kerr. Echinacea supplements are available as tablets, extracts, tincture, tea and even in fresh juice. He adds it should be taken, “At the very first sign of feeling a bit off.” Dr Kerr says to watch for the “tingle on the tongue” as a sign of an effective Echinacea remedy. Echinacea effectiveness can be reduced by “the process by which the plant extract has been prepared, and which variety of the plant has been used,” Dr Kerr said.

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) affiliation with the Ajisai Nursing College (ANC) in Minokamo in Japan will be further enhanced when Sally Ellis, a Bachelor of Nursing student at CSU Dubbo, visits Kizawa Memorial Hospital and the ANC this month. For ten years now, Japanese students who have completed ANC’s three-year nursing diploma have been able to undertake a conversion degree to a full Bachelor of Health Science (Nursing) at CSU, which includes clinical placements at Dubbo Base and Lourdes Hospital. Ms Ellis says she wants to “develop an insight into transcultural nursing and Asian culture”, and will look at “health care delivery for the older person, and community care”. She has also been invited to observe at an open-heart operation. CSU has committed $2 000 to Ms Ellis’s trip. “It wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the support of CSU,” she said. Heather Bell, Manager of Campus Services at CSU Dubbo, said, “This is a great example of the University providing support to students to internationalise their degree.”

What does religion have to do with farming – and vice versa? Quite a lot, according to Dr Judith Crockett, lecturer in social sustainability at the Orange Campus of Charles Sturt University. She identified three distinct groups of farming families: the non-religious, the religious – who make occasional trips to church, often for social reasons, and Christian, whose “whole lives are permeated by their Christian beliefs and values”. These families tend to exhibit quite distinct gender and family relationships, have fewer problems with “succession planning” - the transfer of the farm between generations – and, “many are very progressive sustainable managers of land, very involved in Landcare as well as broader community activities,” said Dr Crockett. “That is because they see themselves as caretakers of the land rather than the owners of it.”

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC) has been awarded much sought after international quality accreditation. The NWGIC, located at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, implemented a quality management system for its research activities in 2006.  Following an external review and audit in June 2007, the Centre was awarded accreditation for its implementation of the ISO 9000 Quality Management System. This achievement, driven by Mrs Helen Pan (NWGIC), Mr Chris O'Connell (NSW DPI), Professor Geoff Scollary (CSU), and Mrs Cathy Campbell (NSW DPI), reinforces the NWGIC’s place at the forefront of Australian research facilities. Director of the NWGIC Professor Thomas Henick-Kling says the quality accreditation is a wonderful achievement and shows a commitment to quality. The NWGIC is the home of leading wine industry research activities including the Winegrowing Futures Program.