Frogs will be the feature of a dinner being organised by lecturer Dr Cilla Kinross from the School of Agriculture and Wine Sciences at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange. During the annual general meeting on Tuesday 6 December of the CSU- supported environmental group, Summer Hill Creek Care Inc, a dinner-with-frogs event will be held. “The frogs will hopefully be calling from a small wetland and Summer Hill Creek,” said Dr Kinross. “While we eat we will listen to the frogs and try and identify them by call. If there is enough interest, we hope to establish a Frogwatch in the district and a regular monitoring program to check on the health of our wetlands and waterways.”  

Staff at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange will be the first to walk through the completed $7.7 million Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Science teaching facility. The new complex boasts academic offices, a rehabilitation gym and practice clinic to ensure physiotherapy students receive the highest standard in theory and practical training. “Charles Sturt University in Orange now has a pedestrian avenue linking the newly constructed student accommodation, past the recently renovated library and lecture theatres to the new physiotherapy building and state-of-the-art dentistry laboratories,” said Division of Facilities Management project officer Mr Mark Adams. The School of Community Health staff and students are excited about moving into the building in the coming months. “Students studying the Bachelor of Physiotherapy will benefit from these new facilities and they’re very excited about working in the new building from first semester in 2012,” said physiotherapy lecturer Ms Kerstin McPherson.

Anson Street School in Orange will benefit from the expertise of three final year Charles Sturt University (CSU) physiotherapy students as they complete their four-week Child and Family Health placement at the public school this week. “Contributing to the local community is an important part of Charles Sturt University,” said physiotherapy lecturer Ms Kay Skinner. “We’re thrilled to establish what we hope will be a long-term partnership with Anson Street School. The School has a good physiotherapy service but with limited hours and we are able to provide additional intensive therapy.” The CSU students have conducted individual therapy sessions with students aged from six to 18 years, as well as group sessions to improve students’ general sporting and gross motor skills.

More than 540 school leavers who successfully applied for courses at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga through the Principal’s Report Entry Program (PREP) will be acknowledged during a morning tea ceremony on Wednesday 7 December. Coordinator of the early entry PREP scheme, Mr Matthew Evans said the scheme has grown in size and prestige in recent years with Charles Sturt University offering more than 1 360 students a place through PREP in 2011. “We received almost 2 000 applications for the PREP scheme this year and the standard of the applications continues to increase, meaning we can offer degree entry to the best students early and the successful applicants can start preparing for their university education. PREP is an early entry scheme designed to attract academically talented students from high schools and TAFE in non metropolitan areas in NSW, ACT and Victoria.” This is the first year CSU has formally celebrated the PREP offers with a morning tea ceremony.

A group that donated money towards upgrading equipment for the FalconCam Project at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange will see the results of their generosity on Thursday 17 November. The 30 Squadron RAAF Beaufighter Association was immediately drawn to the peregrine falcons at CSU, explains project coordinator Mr Scott Banks. “After seeing early media reports on the project, the Association contacted us advising that its emblem comprises a peregrine falcon holding a lightning bolt. It is fitting that they are now so closely connected to the project.  When the first chick was born three days after a direct lightning strike on the water tower, it was named Migii meaning ‘lightning’ in the Wiradjuri language.” Six members of the 30 Squadron RAAF Beaufighter Association will visit CSU in Orange to view the water tower where the birds live and to see how their contribution has enabled people from all over the world to watch live streaming of the peregrine falcons.

December hails the arrival of the graduation season at Charles Sturt University (CSU). In response to the needs of students, CSU is holding its graduations in Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Canberra, Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga from Saturday 10 December to Saturday 17 December. The change from a graduation season in the first half of the year will allow students at CSU to attend their ceremony and receive their awards much closer to the completion of their course. Graduations will be held at CSU in Albury-Wodonga on Friday 16 December and Saturday 17 December; in Bathurst on Thursday 15, Friday 16 and Saturday 17 December; in Canberra on Saturday 10 December; in Dubbo on Monday 12 December; in Orange on Tuesday 13 December; and in Wagga Wagga on Monday 12, Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 December. Read more here.

Indigenous staff at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will meet in Orange this week to engage in professional development, encourage interaction and strengthen networks at the annual Indigenous Staff Conference. Held on Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 November, the conference will be titled Nguluway, a Wiradjuri word meaning ‘meeting with each other’. “Charles Sturt University has increased its Indigenous staff numbers in recent years and we currently have 56 in total, equating to 2.7 per cent of the staff population,” CSU Indigenous Employment Coordinator, Ms Catherine Maxwell said. “We recruit Indigenous staff to cover a broader range of areas within the organisation. We now have Indigenous staff not only represented within the Centre for Indigenous Studies at Charles Sturt University in Dubbo and the Indigenous Student Services’ centres across our campuses but also within our divisions, faculties and service areas.”

A rural education expert from Canada will deliver a public lecture in the new high-technology Connected Learning Space at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst from 5pm Wednesday 9 November. Professor Linda Farr Darling, from the University of British Columbia, Canada, will deliver the lecture, Rural School Landscapes in British Columbia: Mapping the terrain for teachers and teacher educators. Associate Professor Jane Mitchell, lecturer at the School of Teacher Education at CSU in Bathurst said, “Professor Farr Darling’s talk will describe research findings about strengths and challenges faced by rural schools across British Columbia, whether recommendations from a 2003 report had been implemented, and what affect these have had. Given the geographic and demographic similarities between Canada and Australia, there may well be lessons that can be applied here”. The public lecture will be viewed simultaneously and interactively by an audience at CSU in Albury-Wodonga, Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga. Read more about the new Connected Learning Space at CSU here.

How to support girls to grow up with healthy attitudes towards body image and sexuality will be discussed at a public lecture in Orange on Friday 4 November. Lecturer in philosophy and ethics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Dr Emma Rush will give an overview of what researchers and experts have to say about the risks associated with the sexualisation of girls and explain the government’s response. “A generation ago we didn’t see fashion and gossip magazines, padded bras and cosmetics pitched specifically at the primary school market,” she said. “While sex appeal has been used to sell products for a long time, in the last decade or so imagery directly inspired by pornography has also become much more prevalent in fashion and advertising. The increasing pressure on girls to meet very narrow appearance ideals at younger and younger ages is of significant concern to experts in child health and welfare.”  The free lecture, Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, will also identify resources for parents and professionals who work with girls.