Earlier this month, Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Women’s Hockey team picked up a gold medal at the inaugural East Coast Challenge University Games. CSU’s Men’s Hockey won silver despite being a man down for most of the competition, while the Men’s Water Polo team came away with bronze. Nik Granger, a student support officer, said this was the first time CSU had competed as one university with a team of 70 students representing Albury, Wagga Wagga, Bathurst and Dubbo campuses. “Overall, seeing as we had such a small team, the atmosphere was fantastic,” he said. CSU also had first year distance education Master of Applied Science (Library and Information Management) student Lisa Matuzelis competing in the Australian University Championships for Surfing at the Gold Coast. She came away with silver and bronze and a typically laconic surfer attitude: “I would have liked to have come first, but I’m pretty happy with the result. I can’t complain,” she said.

Eight Charles Sturt University (CSU) International School of Business staff leave for China later this month to conduct intensive professional enhancement programs with their counterparts at four Chinese universities. Tianjin University of Commerce, Yunnan University of Economics and Finance, Changchun Taxation College and Yangzhou University are strategic partners with CSU for the delivery of business studies courses to international students overseas. Professor Alan Fish is Head of the International School of Business at CSU. He explains that the articulation agreements with the four Chinese institutions means students can graduate with both Chinese and western qualifications, making the students more employable. “We will be conducting intensive face-to-face sessions with the Chinese academics to familiarise them with assessment procedures and content of the CSU subjects,” Professor Fish said.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is committed to an Indigenous Employment Strategy that promotes the employment of Indigenous Australians across all CSU schools and divisions. As part of this strategy a series of workshops have been planned. The first of this two part series was run at the Wagga Wagga Campus and Bathurst Campus in November and December 2006. Further workshops are now scheduled for July, August and September this year. Workshop 1 will provide an overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their culture, especially those of south eastern Australia and the issues that are important to them. Topics will include kinship and relationship to country, Aboriginal dreaming and spirituality, contemporary families and communities, and issues of inequality. Workshop 2 will touch on barriers to education and employment, promoting Indigenous employment at CSU, workplace issues and cross cultural communication, and look at protocols for community consultations.

A senior Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic has used an international forum to argue for the expansion of community development in the Asia Pacific region to tackle major socio-economic problems such as extreme poverty, lack of education, and environmental unsustainability. Professor Manohar Pawar of the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences was a main speaker at the International Association for Community Development conference. “Many countries policies suggest that those people and institutions with most influence, referred to as ‘top down’, are poised to develop communities at all levels. The capacity of ordinary communities need to be developed to match the ‘top downs’ readiness,” said Professor Pawar. “It is a challenging but not impossible task. If we sincerely search, I believe we will find answers to these challenges within the diversity of the region.”

Members of the Riverina equine community at a Charles Sturt University (CSU) Equine Influenza (EI) forum have been urged to work together so that NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) quarantine restrictions, imposed in response to Australia’s first EI outbreak, are upheld by everyone in the community. Participants emphasised that the disease poses a threat to all horses, ponies and donkeys. Around 130 people attended the forum which was organised in Wagga Wagga by the CSU School of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences. A panel of CSU equine health experts, led by Director of Veterinary Science Professor Kym Abbott, outlined the status of the EI outbreak, how the highly contagious virus is transmitted and ways to prevent its spread through the nation’s equine population. CSU veterinary science lecturer Dr Sharanne Raidal stressed the importance of community vigilance and compliance to halt the advance of equine flu, which can be transmitted by humans, vehicles and equipment.

Lessons from agriculture in the Middle Ages could today help farms in Australia become more sustainable. Back in that era, farmers didn’t hold individual titles over land but farmed collectively on common property or "commons". A modern day adaptation of this concept is cross-boundary farming, where farmers agree to pool their land resource and manage it as a whole. A free one day forum on cross-boundary farming will be hosted by the Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS) at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Wagga Wagga Campus, on Friday 7 September. The forum will consider the opportunities and pitfalls of cross-boundary farming, the environmental benefits, property rights, relationships between and within farming families as well as workloads. There will be two panel sessions presenting various practical and political points of view on the practice.

The most recent Department of Primary Industries (DPI) figures suggest that, in NSW, there are 835 horses infected with Equine Influenza on 119 confirmed properties. An additional suspect 2900 horses on 319 locations are also in quarantine. Charles Sturt University (CSU) senior lecturer in equine medicine, Dr Sharanne Raidal says most importantly, the NSW Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer reports that every one of these cases has been traced from known contact with affected horses. This means that, to date, the disease has not escaped surveillance measures. Dr Raidal warns that only by containing the virus within a small proportion of the total horse population, and allowing the disease to "burn itself out", will "we succeeded in eradicating EI". Continued careful attention to quarantine restrictions and prompt identification of new cases is required for this to happen. A number of horses with high temperatures, but no known risk of disease, have been tested negative. It is important that all such horses are examined as part of routine, ongoing surveillance for spread of the disease.

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor Shahbaz Khan, Director of the International Centre for Water, Senior Principal Scientist and Research Leader with CSIRO Land and Water and Regional Coordinator of the Asia Pacific office of UNESCO IHP-HELP, continues to attract accolades for his world leading water research. Professor Khan has been awarded the Modelling Society of Australia and New Zealand (MSSANZ) Biennial Medal for Natural Systems, after also recently winning a prestigious Eureka Award. Based at the CSU Wagga Wagga Campus, Professor Khan says, “The recognition is great news for CSU and CSIRO research”. CSU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Vice-President (Research) Professor Paul C Burnett says, “It is fantastic to see that Professor Khan’s work and contribution to new knowledge in this area is being so widely recognised. He and his team should be proud of what they have achieved.” The Biennial Medal will be presented in December at the MSSANZ 2007 conference in New Zealand.

Improve returns from cattle bound for the Asian market will be the focus of a forum hosted by the Asian Agribusiness Research Centre at the Orange Campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) on Wednesday 26 September. The meeting, titled Asia Today 2007 - Building Beef Returns, will be held at Borenore near Orange. Dr Claus Deblitz, Director of the Asian Agribusiness Research Centre, said Asia Today 2007 will focus on the opportunities available for beef producers who wish to take advantage of this growing regional market. “The practical morning session will provide industry experts demonstrating muscle density testing, low stress stock handling and related activities,” Dr Deblitz said. “In the afternoon, the forum will provide information for the beef industry and review opportunities in international markets. It will address major beef market trends world-wide and in Asia, improving  beef tenderness and marbling to meet customer needs, prospects of beef production in China and the Australian live cattle export business.” Keynote speaker Rob Sinnamon, the 2007 NSW Farmer of the Year, will outline how he significantly improved the profitability of a 5 000 head Santa Gertrudis beef operation he manages near Casino on the NSW North Coast,.