This year’s National Drama Australia Conference had more drama than usual for Associate Professor Dr John Carroll, who was named the recipient of the 2006 Drama Australia Award for Excellence in Drama Education. The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Associate Professor in Communication Research also launched a new book at the Turning The Tides conference which addressed such issues as online drama, digital performance and drama learning. Professor Carroll says Real Players? coauthored with David Cameron of CSU and Michael Anderson of the University of Sydney is “aimed at drama educators, secondary teachers and the university community, as well as a broader group of people who are interested in what’s happening in new technology and performance. It covers the shift that is going on in how young people are relating to new media, and how they are creatively using alternative channels of information.”

“I feel very confident in promoting the University as a great place to work.” Karen Kime is Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) new Indigenous Employment Coordinator. Although she only started in the position in June, already she has held cross cultural training workshops and Indigenous staff forums. “The workshops were about the different communication styles that many of our people have. Things such as eye contact, and women and men’s 'business', are sensitive issues. Silences are often used to show respect. Body language is very different. The forums meanwhile are a fantastic way for our people to be able to get together, to network, learn University processes, and to get some training which is specifically targeted for their needs.” Next up will be the introduction of pathways between TAFE, schools and CSU and the development of a mentoring scheme “to encourage people to see CSU as a potential and relevant employer - where one could have a career. In addition, our people contribute to an interesting and dynamic workforce; one that reflects the cultural makeup of the region it serves.”

Samdech Hun Sen, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia will inspect the Wagga Wagga Campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Thursday 12 October. He will be accompanied by a large delegation from Cambodia, a country in Southeast Asia with a population of more than 13 million. Head of the University’s Wagga Wagga Campus Professor David Green says the Prime Minister is visiting Wagga Wagga as part of his official visit to Australia. “The Cambodian Prime Minister expressed an interest in seeing Australian agricultural facilities, hence the visit to our Campus.” Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter said “it is very clear that our model of collaboration with government agencies and with industry, as demonstrated with the E H Graham Centre and the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre, is a model for other countries to use.”  The Cambodian delegation will be briefed on current collaborations between the NSW Department of Primary Industry and Cambodian research institutions before a luncheon hosted by CSU. Professor Deirdre Lemerle, Director of the E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, a joint research venture between CSU and the NSW Department of Primary Industries, says the visit is a “tremendous opportunity to showcase our excellent research capacity in agriculture, and further develop our collaborative links with Cambodia to create profitable and sustainable agricultural systems.”

Like a scene from Hitchcock’s horror movie The Birds, one minute you are strolling along and the next you are being attacked from behind by a magpie. Dr David Watson, senior lecturer in Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Environmental & Information Sciences, says to expect the magpie swooping season to begin this week or next. “The first thing to realise is they are just parents looking after their kids, they are not crazy birds with a ‘bee in their bonnet’.” He recommends avoiding the nesting trees and carrying an umbrella or wearing a wide brimmed hat. Dr Watson says the magpie problem on the University’s Albury-Wodonga Campus is caused by hand feeding which has made some of the birds so tame they wander freely into University buildings, including lecture theatres. “Hand feeding can lead to problems and eventually the bird becomes too bold for its own good. As with swooping, it can cause problems.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) journalism graduate, Courtney Trenwith has won the Minister’s Award for Excellence at the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) Excellence in Education Journalism Awards. Ms Trenwith received $3 000, as well as high praise for her work. Chair of the ACDE, CSU’s Associate Professor Jo-anne Reid, said Ms Trenwith’s submission was “absolutely outstanding. I was especially impressed that Courtney looked at the human side of education, not just the big issues”. Ms Trenwith says she arrived at the Awards ceremony in Canberra expecting to receive the News category, and was stunned to receive the overall excellence award. She says she loves her work at the Illawarra Mercury newspaper, saying “education was the only round I ever wanted to do”.

Daryl McMahon’s Rugby club history includes Charles Sturt University, the Mudgee Wombats and now the Vientiane Buffalos. The Buffalos are one of four teams in the Lao Rugby Federation. Daryl’s job, funded through Volunteer International Development of Australia, is to develop the sport throughout Laos. The CSU graduate says Rugby is taking off all over Asia, with the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) claiming 25 member countries. The national Lao team recently made their international debut competing against Brunei, Indonesia, and Cambodia in the ARFU Division 6 Tournament. He describes the local players as “fearless. In the Lao culture there is minimal physical contact, so we had to overcome that in the Rugby training. And you have to be tough off the rugby field as well, because the Lao culture involves a lot of eating and drinking the local Lao whiskey."

Last week the UK government announced that all 306 British World War One soldiers executed for desertion or cowardice are to be pardoned, saying the decision was taken on moral grounds. Charles Sturt University (CSU) historian Dr Rob McLachlan, an adjunct senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies, says it was the court martial and execution of Australian soldiers “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock from Bathurst during the earlier Boer War that prevented Australian soldiers suffering the same fate as their British counterparts. He says the public outcry over the deaths of Morant and Handcock ensured Australian soldiers would never again face a British court martial. “Also, the Australian Infantry Force (AIF) was a fully volunteer force, and was not the sort of military that would take easily to this extreme form of discipline. However, I see nothing in the human condition to say it won't happen again.”

"I thought it would be useful to have some industry qualifications,” says Tristam Horn, an Accelerated Teacher Training Program student, of his decision to gain certification in Microsoft® Office. Coming first in Australia in his Excel examination saw the Charles Sturt University (CSU) student win a trip to Orlando, Florida in the USA, where he was then crowned World Champion for Microsoft® Excel. “I learnt a lot that I didn’t know Excel could do. It gave me a better understanding of what it is capable of as far as recording students marks, scaling, grading and graphing, both for my benefit and also for the students to see where they are in the class and in the year. It is an easy way to see how students are going in different areas of their study, and I can see where I need to improve my teaching and hopefully deliver a bit better the next time."

The changing global communications environment and the increasing role of the consumer were the hot topics when the CEO of the International Advertising Association (IAA) World Secretariat spoke to Charles Sturt University (CSU) advertising students last week. Michael Lee, also the immediate past IAA President, was invited to the Bathurst Campus by Rod McCulloch, CSU’s Advertising course coordinator. “Mr Lee is very familiar with CSU because we have won the IAA’s student advertising competition InterAd three times in six years, the only university in the world to have done so. He is very supportive of what we do here”. Mr McCulloch says the IAA is the industry’s peak body. “It has a presence in over 70 countries and has over 4 000 members. The IAA supports the role of advertising in the community and the fostering of professional development and education.”