The inaugural Orange Ag Club’s dinner will be held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Orange this Wednesday 27 May with Emeritus Professor John Chudleigh speaking to guests about the positive future of the agricultural industry. Organised by CSU’s agricultural business management students, the dinner aims to provide a forum for students to meet with people in the industry. Professor Chudleigh has a strong history with CSU in Orange. Currently an Adjunct Professor in Agriculture and Wine Sciences at CSU, Professor Chudleigh has been involved in education in rural and regional Australia for over 25 years, working as Head of the Orange Campus for nine years. As a regular media commentator on trends in rural and regional Australia, he is sure to enlighten guests at the Orange Ag Club dinner.

An academic whose work has raised Australian consciousness of the largest accident in the Army’s history will this week address a memorial service for the tragic event. In May 1945 at the Royal Australian Engineers Training Camp Kapooka near Wagga Wagga, 24 young trainee engineers and two of their instructors were killed in an explosion in a bunker during a demolitions training exercise. In 2008, CSU senior lecturer Dr Peter Rushbrook detailed the event in the journal, History of Education Review. “Apart from a mass funeral, where the coffins lay on four semi-trailers, and the subsequent inquiry, the Kapooka tragedy has disappeared altogether from our national memory,” wrote Dr Rushbrook. On Thursday 21 May from 2.15pm near the Kapooka Military Area, Dr Rushbrook will be among the official guests at the second consecutive memorial service hosted by the Army Recruit Training Centre (ARTC) Commandant Colonel G W Finney.  

The emerging serious health problem of chronic kidney disease will be examined during a public lecture in Griffith in May. The lecture on Wednesday 27 May coincides with national Kidney Health Week 2009 being held from Sunday 24 May to Saturday 30 May. Associate Professor Ann Bonner from the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Nursing and Midwifery in Wagga Wagga will explain chronic kidney disease, its risk factors, optimal healthcare requirements and its impact on individuals, society and the Australian healthcare system. Associate Professor Bonner has practiced for more than 20 years as a renal nurse and has developed postgraduate renal nursing courses for universities in NSW and Queensland. Dr Bonner is also involved in collaborative research projects with renal health care clinicians in these states.

Are books becoming extinct? That is the question which will be posed by the School of Education at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Wagga Wagga during a public forum on Wednesday 27 May. In the first Edversations Professional Forum for 2009, CSU academics will join representatives from schools, education support agencies and the wider community to discuss the topic. While the next generation of children has embraced new technologies such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and SMS, the expert panel will explore the significance of hard copy texts. “The issue is important for educators and parents alike as children are being immersed in a technological world and we need to ensure that they are equipped with the skills to navigate that world,” said one of the forum’s facilitators Ms Letitia Galloway from the School of Education. “We need to ask ourselves 'What place do books have today in the education and development of children?'” The forum is hosted by CSU and Wagga Wagga City Council.    

Actor and author Mr Brendan Cowell, who graduated in 1997 from the theatre/media course at the School of Communication at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst, narrowly missed out on the Play Award when the winners of the NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2009 were announced at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney last night, Monday 18 May. Mr Cowell’s play Ruben Guthrie  was one of six plays short-listed for the prestigious award. Theatre/media lecturer, Mr Jerry Boland, said Brendan Cowell is an immense talent whose success is highlighted by the calibre of the other nominees and by the public acclaim for his work. “Brendan has enjoyed major success both within Australia and abroad, and I congratulate him for his nomination with such illustrious company.”

Students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Wagga Wagga will this week have an opportunity to mark Drug Action Week 2009. An initiative of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia, the national awareness campaign aims to this year highlight the broad range of issues surrounding alcohol and other drugs (AOD) and draw attention to the achievements of frontline AOD workers. CSU students will be able to learn more at a free barbecue on Wednesday 20 May. Through a number of fun activities, students will be able to simulate the effects of AOD. The activities and barbecue will be held from 11am to 2pm near the Student Cafeteria at CSU at Wagga Wagga.

As part of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) 20th anniversary celebrations, 15 students at Orange will receive special recognition at the annual Scholarships and Prizes Presentation Ceremony on Friday 22 May. The event offers the students a chance to meet their scholarship donor. Hosted by the Charles Sturt Foundation, the scholarships are awarded to students on the basis of academic merit, leadership and contribution to the community. Prizes for academic achievement will be awarded to students in the areas of agribusiness and allied health.

The driving force behind the establishment of a student ‘vegie’ patch at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Wagga Wagga envisages not only a space for students to grow and harvest vegetables, but a place for art installations, sculptures and quiet contemplation. Ms Gemma Hawkins, a third year veterinary science student and student representative on CSU’s Environmental Management Advisory Committee said, “I believe that having a creative space will allow students to feel they have an influence and lasting legacy at Charles Sturt University, whether it be through creating art or growing plants.”  Ms Hawkins is establishing a vegetable garden student committee to oversee planting and harvest. “We have many ideas about how to run the garden and may eventually hire out plots, like a community garden.” The project has been jointly supported by the University’s Division of Student Services and the Division of Facilities Management whose staff cleared and levelled the land and provided the compost soil base, made from scraps collected and composted at CSU.

The process of how mathematics is learnt by school students has long been investigated by Charles Sturt University (CSU) senior lecturer Dr Tamsin Meaney. The academic has worked with non-English speaking students in Sydney, Indigenous students in the Northern Territory, teachers in the Republic of Kiribati, and in a Maori school in New Zealand. At a public lecture in West Wyalong on Wednesday 27 May, Dr Meaney will discuss how children come to school with a wealth of mathematical experiences learnt outside the classroom. She will examine the common measurement experiences at home and how they assist school lessons. “The more that parents and teachers work together, the more likely that children will learn with confidence,” said Dr Meaney. ”Often with mathematics, this has lead to an emphasis on the parents having to learn about what happens in schools. However, teachers can also learn a lot about what happens at home and use this in planning more tailored learning opportunities.”