Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the NSW Department of Education and Communities have joined forces to gather the best and brightest Year 9 students from across the Riverina region to compete for the Riverina Debating Challenge Cup. The University will host the 2012 Riverina Debating Festival on Wednesday 12 December at CSU in Albury-Wodonga with 45 students accompanied by staff from high schools in Albury, Corowa, Finley and Wagga Wagga. Students will also take part in expert workshops with senior adjudicators to discuss the finer points of preparing for and delivering a speech as part of a debating team. “This is an exciting opportunity for talented students to be challenged by their peers in a high-quality debating contest,” said event coordinator and lecturer with CSU’s School of Education, Mr Paul Grover.

The lessons taken from the Christchurch earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011 are being shared this week with staff at Charles Sturt University (CSU).  Mr Chris Hawker, Primary Incident Controller from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, was keynote speaker at CSU’s annual emergency planning workshop in Young today Wednesday 5 December and will visit CSU in Bathurst tomorrow Thursday 6 December, having toured CSU in Wagga Wagga earlier this week. Mr Hawker shared with CSU’s critical response staff his team’s response to these devastating earthquakes and the University of Canterbury’s road to recovery. “Chris has a wealth of experience in terms of emergency management processes. Hearing him talk about his own experiences during these earthquakes helps Charles Sturt University staff build on our own emergency management preparation and response frameworks,” said Mr Wayne Millar, Chair of CSU’s Emergency Planning Committee.

Approval of new student accommodation at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga has been granted. The development application went before the Southern Joint Regional Planning Panel in Wagga Wagga on Monday 3 December. The $15 million development on Valder Way at CSU in Wagga Wagga will see the construction of six two-storey buildings providing 152 rooms with ensuite facilities. In July, Zauner Construction was named the successful tenderer for the design and construction of new student accommodation at CSU in Orange and Wagga Wagga. Read more on CSU News here. Zauner Construction will move onto the site from Monday 17 December. The new accommodation for 152 students is due for completion by the start of the 2014 academic year. The development also involves the construction of a building with a lobby, seminar room, storage area, entertainment room, kitchen and communal and private study areas. CSU currently offers almost 3 000 student accommodation places across its campuses, including 1 200 at CSU in Wagga Wagga.    

Well known Australian poet, Mr Les Murray will launch the Booranga Writers’ Centre’s 23rd edition of fourW. The longrunning literary journal includes some of the best poetry and fiction from across the region, around Australia and from overseas. Produced out of the Booranga Writers’ Centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga, fourW twenty-three connects local and regional writers to more established and international writers. Recent writers-in-residence Jennifer Mills and Christopher ‘Kit’ Kelen join international voices such as Jane Joritz-Nakagawa and Lance Nizami, plus Australians Les Murray, Ivy Alvarez, Matt Hetherington and Brett Dionysius. Les Murray is the guest of Booranga Writers’ Centre and his visit is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW, Wagga Wagga City Council, and CSU.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) accounting student, Ms Divya Kumar, has had a local win in a national share trading competition organised by the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Ms Kumar, from Wagga Wagga, is completing the second year of a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) degree with a Distinction average. The game, the ‘Share Trading Competition’, required students to invest $50 000 of cyber money in any shares listed on the ASX. Ms Kumar’s strategy was to trade a well-balanced portfolio of about six stocks, making a ‘cyber profit’ of about $10 000 between July and November this year. She was named the top student competing against three other students at CSU in Wagga Wagga and 49 students across the University’s School of Accounting and Finance, qualifying for a ‘Gold’ award. Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance, Mr Chris Deeley, said the game integrated well with the finance subject. “It gives students realistic exposure to trading securities on the ASX and an opportunity to assess the relevance and reality of various share market and share trading theories, including technical trading, fundamental analysis and the efficient market hypothesis.” It is a sentiment shared by Ms Kumar who added, “The competition has taught me a lot about how share markets work. It has given me a lot of confidence in understanding how the real worlds of accounting and finance actually work.”

The Equine Centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga will host the inaugural Supreme Performance Horse Sale from 1.30pm on Saturday 24 November. The sale, which is the first of its kind at CSU, will see 60 Australian working stock and quarter horses go under the hammer, with more than $300 000 expected to change hands. CSU Equine Centre Manager, Mr John Smart, said the auction by Landmark is expected to attract plenty of interest. “It’s the first time that buyers in the south of NSW will have an opportunity to attend an auction in their own backyard,” he said. “Most horse auctions take place in the state’s north, so this is quite a coup for vendors and the industry as a whole.” Sixty horses will make-up the inaugural sale with vendors coming from across NSW as well as Victoria. Local horse breeder and Supreme Performance Horse Sale Committee member, Mr Steve Condell, said the sale will offer some of the best bloodlines in the country. “This is the first time we’ve had the facilities available to offer top performance quality horses,” he said.

Thirteen Higher School Certificate (HSC) students have been handpicked to participate in a week-long program in the Riverina aimed at attracting more young people to primary industry careers such as aquaculture, ecology, horticulture, fisheries, water security, sustainability, climate change and the environment. Their selection to take part from Monday 19 November in the Industry Placement Scholarship Program run by the Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE) and Charles Sturt University (CSU) follows talks to schools in 2012 by the Centre’s science education officer, Ms Emma Wordsworth. “As they embark on their last year of school, the students will have an opportunity to explore the exciting science based careers available in the primary industry sector,” Ms Wordsworth said. The students have been selected from schools in the Riverina and South Australia. The program will see the group visit a local organic rice farm, cattle feedlot, rice mill, native fisheries and food processing plant. On Thursday 22 and Friday 23 November, the students will be involved in activities within the University’s School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences and School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, including lectures, practical activities, tours of facilities such veterinary science facilities and underground laboratory, the Rhizolysimeter. Read more about the PICSE Industry Placement Scholarship Program here.

The high standard of services offered by the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Library to its users no matter where they live has been praised in a biennial survey conducted in September. The Library Client Survey 2012 attracted 3 844 respondents, with almost 54 per cent of the surveys completed by CSU distance education students. The Library’s Director of Client Services, Ms Alice Ferguson said, “In this latest survey, the Charles Sturt University Library has moved from the bottom 25 per cent of libraries in 2010 to the top 25 per cent for overall performance of Australian university libraries surveyed over the last two years. Our staff were highly commended in the survey for the standard of service they provide to our users.” During the last two years, CSU has established new Learning Commons in Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Orange and Wagga Wagga, and increased its use of social media through the Library. A part promoting the survey, cash prizes were offered to library users to participate in the evaluation. Two of the four winners, medical radiation science student Mr Thomas Belling and Master of Health Science Honours student Ms Di Wintle, were presented certificates by Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Vann at the Convention Centre at CSU in Wagga Wagga on Tuesday 6 November.

The Registered Training Organisation, CSU Training, will be celebrating the achievements of its 2012 graduates with a ceremony at the University’s Convention Centre in Wagga Wagga on Friday 23 November. Graduates include CSU staff and learners who have completed their studies by distance education. The majority of graduates due to attend the ceremony from 2pm to 4pm will be CSU staff members with business and management qualifications and members of the University’s asset maintenance staff with the Certificate III in Asset Maintenance. Other qualifications include: Certificate IV Frontline Management; Certificate IV Business Administration; Diploma of Management; Certificate IV in Training and Assessment; Graduate Diploma in Family Dispute Resolution; Certificate III Hospital-Health Services Pharmacy Support; and Certificate IV Hospital-Health Services Pharmacy Support. The guest speaker at the ceremony will be adjunct Associate Professor John Kent from the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga.