Researchers at Charles Sturt University (CSU) are seeking post-treatment cancer survivors in the Bathurst area to participate in the CanLift research and exercise program. The research-based resistance exercise program has been developed by Ms Danielle Girard, a PhD student at the CSU School of Human Movement Studies in Bathurst who is an accredited exercise physiologist. Ms Girard said, “The purpose of the CanLift research and exercise program is to provide post-cancer patients an opportunity to participate in a supervised resistance training program that will assist in managing some of the long-term effects of cancer and/or its treatment. It will also provide research data that will help to develop evidence-based guidelines for the prescription of resistance exercise post-cancer.” The program seeks disease-free cancer survivors aged 40 to 70 who are non-smokers and have ceased receiving cancer-related treatments for a minimum of six months. People experiencing post-cancer fatigue are particularly encouraged to become involved, and healthy participants are also required as a comparison group. All exercise sessions will held in the Exercise Physiology and Functional Rehabilitation Clinic at CSU in Bathurst.

A photographic series by Charles Sturt University (CSU) graduate Ms Kate Lewis will feature in a new multi media exhibition in Wagga Wagga on the aftermath of natural disasters in regional Australia. Curated by ABC Riverina Open producer, Ms Sonya Gee, the exhibition is a record of the rebuilding process as a result of the devastation from the Black Saturday bushfires, Cyclone Yasi and floods in Queensland and the Riverina, as told by the people who lived through them. The photos by Ms Lewis, a Master of Arts Practice (Photomedia) graduate, feature portraits of State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers in Wagga Wagga. Aftermath: Disaster, Resilience & Recovery will be launched from 2pm on Saturday 25 August in the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, Civic Centre, Baylis Street, Wagga Wagga. A five-member panel, including Ms Lewis, will discuss the exhibition and answer questions from the floor from 2.30pm. The exhibition runs until Sunday 14 October 2012.

Around-the-clock care is being provided at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga to horses injured in a stable fire in Leeton early Tuesday 21 August. Five horses died in the blaze in one of four stable blocks at the Leeton Showground. Specialist in Equine Surgery Dr Gareth Trope, from the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at CSU said, “Four horses were initially transported to our Veterinary Clinical Centre but only two were admitted to the large animal hospital with burns and smoke inhalation.” A fifth horse, deemed too ill to move immediately after the fire, was examined on Wednesday 22 this afternoon. “The horses are being regularly monitored in their stalls and are receiving intravenous fluids and drugs for pain relief. The protein loss associated with burns is a major concern,” said Dr Trope, who is being supported by Dr Sharanne Raidal, a specialist in Equine Medicine. “The level of care being afforded these injured animals is a credit to our veterinary science students. The final year students on clinical duties at the Veterinary Clinical Centre are involved in the treatment of the horses. However, other veterinary science students volunteered to return to Charles Sturt University from their holidays when the call went out for assistance.”

Public health advocate Mr Tony Kolbe from Charles Sturt University (CSU) has welcomed the High Court’s rejection of a challenge to plain packaging laws in Australia. The High Court today ruled in favour of federal government legislation to put cigarettes in olive green packets without trademarks. The ruling could see the plain packs in retail outlets by December. As Director of the University’s Centre for Inland Health (CIH), Mr Kolbe said, “Not only is this a win for the health of Australians, it sets a welcome precedent for other countries contemplating plain packaging laws. Tobacco companies can no longer use their packaging as a branding tool to sell cigarettes in Australia.” Read more about Mr Kolbe’s views on the High Court challenge by major tobacco companies on CSU News here. The CIH is a research centre at CSU, focussed on improving the health of inland communities. Read more here.  

The expansion of courses available at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) newest campus in Port Macquarie in 2013 will be detailed at a special Information Day on Thursday 23 August.  Four information sessions will be held throughout the day at 27 Grant Street, Port Macquarie from 10am to 8pm. Open to the community, the event will highlight the four new CSU undergraduate degrees available for full-time study, on campus on the Mid North Coast. These include Bachelor degrees in business, paramedics, policing and medical imaging. Read more on course expansion at Port Macquarie on CSU News here. Campus Director in Port Macquarie Dr Muyesser Durur said,” These undergraduate degrees available from 2013 are in addition to the four courses now available in Port Macquarie in conjunction with North Coast TAFE including accounting, creative industries, social work, and health and rehabilitation science. Our lecturers will be on hand throughout the day to talk about our range of courses and where they can lead in terms of employment. Information about the academic and non-academic support available from Charles Sturt University for new students will also be available during the event.” You can register online for one of the four Information Day sessions here or telephone 1800 334 733. Information Day sessions on Thursday 23 August will be held from 10am to 11am; 11am to 12noon; 1pm to 2pm; and 6pm to 8pm.

You might know him from television but Mr Andrew Daddo will share his experience as a children’s author with literature students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga this week.  Mr Daddo has written 18 best-selling books for children and teenagers. As writer-in-residence at the Booranga Writers’ Centre Mr Daddo will read some of his work and answer questions at a public event at the Wagga Wagga City Library on Tuesday 14 August at 5pm. On Thursday 16 August he will also speak to CSU students studying his collection of short stories for teenagers called DACKED!  Senior Lecturer in English from CSU’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences Dr Mark MacLeod said being able to talk with an author directly about their work is a fantastic learning opportunity.  “Regardless of the discipline, we are communicating all day long and while emailing and texting are convenient, they are notoriously bad at conveying the subtleties of language,” he said. “Having a fiction writer on campus is an opportunity for us to learn more about the ways we can use language to communicate our intentions more precisely and to target specific audiences.”

A 15-member delegation from one of Charles Sturt University's (CSU) international partners in China will be in Wagga Wagga on Thursday 2 August. Yangzhou University (YU) is located in the city of Yangzhou in the province of Jiangsu in China’s east. CSU currently delivers a Bachelor of Business Studies to students through YU and three other universities in China. (Read more here.) The visit from 9.30am to 5pm is aimed at exploring opportunities for research in agricultural and animal science. The Chinese delegates will meet with a range of CSU staff including Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) Professor Sue Thomas, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Administration) Professor Ken Dillon and Director of the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Professor Deirdre Lemerle. It will also include academic staff from the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences and School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga. On Wednesday 4 July, six senior officials from Yangzhou University travelled to CSU in Wagga Wagga.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) student has won a new mountain bicycle for her ideas on sustainability at CSU. Ms Amy Collet won the bicycle as first prize in a competition that highlighted the University’s ambitions to help its students and staff use alternatives to cars around the CSU campus at Thurgoona. Ms Collet will receive her prize from the Albury-Wodonga Campus Environmental Committee on behalf of CSU Green at the Gums Café, Thurgoona, on Thursday 19 July. CSU Green’s Ms Nicola Smith said her group aims to promote the use of bicycles for transportation to, from and around CSU campuses. “We want to progressively remove the barriers to cycling, provide educational material on bicycle routes and cycling safety, and actively build CSU cycling networks that promote the environmental, social and health benefits of cycling,” Ms Smith said.

Twenty business students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) will this month demonstrate the possibilities of simultaneous formal study and international travel. The group leaves Sydney on Tuesday 3 July for the Philippines for 10 days to participate in a range of activities at businesses in the capital, Manila. Industry leaders and even the Australian High Commissioner to the Philippines will meet with the students. “This is not about traditional study,” said Mr Anthony Chan from the School of Computing and Mathematics at CSU. “It’s about true workplace learning and immersion into businesses in another culture. The trip’s program has been organised with the Consul General of the Philippines in Sydney and the Philippines Australia Business Council.” The trip is funded by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and CSU Global, a University initiative to increase the number of students undertaking international experiences as part of their studies.