The head of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Associate Professor Nick O’Brien, will deliver a public lecture in Port Macquarie titled Terrorism and Australia: Risk and prevention, including the role of financing in terrorism. The lecture, at the Glasshouse on Wednesday 23 October, is the fourth in a series which has brought speakers from a range of disciplines to share the latest ideas, thinking and opinions on contemporary social, scientific and cultural issues with the Port Macquarie community. Professor O’Brien joined CSU after a distinguished career in policing, including roles as Commander of the international counterterrorism group in Special Branch at New Scotland Yard. CSU Port Macquarie Campus Director Dr Muyesser Durur said the community response to the lecture series had been very encouraging. “The community has really embraced this concept,” she said. “Part of Charles Sturt University’s role on the Mid North Coast is to bring the latest ideas from the University’s areas of research directly to the community and this lecture series has demonstrated that’s something our community is very interested in.” 

After eight years at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Executive Director of CSU’s Division of Marketing and Community Education, Ken Ball is leaving CSU to further his photography career. He cites the integration of the marketing website, the development of the CSU Contact Centre and the establishment of the CSU Outback Art School in Broken Hill as highlights of his time at CSU. Despite his burgeoning photography career, which includes three books and numerous exhibitions, he says he will always fondly remember his years at CSU. “It’s been great working here. CSU is quite entrepreneurial, the thinking here is different to a lot of universities which are set in a traditional mould and set in their ways. CSU is very responsive, and that makes the University what it is.”

The peak body for Australian agricultural scientists and technologists has honoured the life-time professional work of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Emeritus Professor Ted Wolfe. The Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (AIAST), representing professionals working in agricultural science and natural resource management, has made Professor Wolfe a Fellow of the Institute. He has a lengthy involvement with agricultural education at the University which in recent years has seen him lead international student exchanges between CSU and the University of Delaware, USA. Professor Wolfe has also been recognised for his work in building the agricultural capacity of countries like North Korea and Eritrea, visiting and building ties with both countries. He believes strongly in the benefit of these visits to scientific agriculture and to farmers, not only in the host country but also in Australia. “Following the recent run of poor seasons, the Australian agricultural sector deserves on-going community support for the valuable role it plays in food security, land care and earning export income,” said Professor Wolfe. Outgoing Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Science Professor Jim Pratley said this was a fitting and richly deserved reward for Professor Wolfe for his tireless commitment to agriculture and AIAST.

The Ponton Theatre might not need its heaters on “high” even though Hair – the Tribal Love Rock Musical opens next week in the middle of a Bathurst winter. Show producer and director, Charles Sturt University (CSU) second year theatre media student Adam Ross, describes the plot as “about a bunch of hippies who protest against war, take a lot of drugs and get nude and sing about sexual freedom.” He says the topics raised by the musical are pertinent at present. “With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and with the issues of gay marriage and sexual freedom, it really hits home.” He also says the show will be a “trip down memory lane” for older people. “While putting up posters around campus, many lecturers are going, ‘Hair, I haven’t seen that since I was 15!’ I know it will bring back a lot of memories.” Hair opens on Wednesday 2 August, and continues on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 August. Bookings can be made by calling: Mobile 0428 611 916. This production will follow the dark play Kafka’s Metamorphosis, to be performed by CSU theatre media students this Thursday 27, Friday 28 and Saturday 29 July at the Ponton Theatre in Bathurst, starting at 8pm. For bookings, call: Mobile 0405 449 653.

The talents of the final year photography students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will be on show at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery from Friday 25 October during the annual graduation exhibition. Thirteen students from the School of Communication and Creative Arts at CSU in Wagga Wagga will display their many styles and techniques during Envisage. The exhibition runs until Sunday 15 December. Envisage will be launched by Associate Professor Helen Ennis from the School of Art at the Australian National University from 6pm to 8pm on Saturday 26 October. Associate Professor Ennis is one of Australia’s leading photography curators, historians and writers. She was formerly Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia. As part of the exhibition, six of the exhibiting students will each speak about their practice and what the CSU degree has given them during a free forum at the Gallery from midday to 1.30pm on Friday 25 October. The students are due to graduate from CSU in Wagga Wagga during a ceremony on December.  

Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) students have been awarded NSW Farmers scholarships and have been described as “outstanding young achievers set to make their mark on country NSW”. Megan McGrice, a Bachelor of Veterinary Science student, and James Christie who is currently completing honours in a Bachelor of Applied Science (Agriculture) both study at CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus. James says the scholarship money is a bonus, “especially when you are on a University student budget. Mum and Dad are stoked.” James and Megan each received $5 000 at the Association's Annual Conference on Wednesday 19 July. Chair of the Association's Rural Affairs Committee, Alan Brown, said the high calibre of entries this year was very inspiring and shows that that the future of rural NSW is in good hands, with all the winners planning to use their talents and skills back in regional areas. Megan says the Veterinary Science course “is all about trying to give something back to rural areas. I grew up on the land and I know what it is like to not have a vet around. I want to help farmers and help out in rural areas.”

Virginia Falk is driven. While queuing at Centrelink and wondering how she was going to support four children alone, she decided education was the answer. “I did six degrees in five-and-a-half years. I think it’s a record,” she says with some understatement. Starting with three undergraduate courses, including a Bachelor of Vocational Education and Training from Charles Sturt University (CSU), she is currently a Chief Executive Officer with the NSW Department of Natural Resources. Her role there is to establish, administer and implement the Aboriginal Water Trust, a project to increase the level of Aboriginal participation in industries such as nurseries, recycling and “fertigation”. Meanwhile, her studies continue. “My doctoral thesis will be a breakthrough as far as understanding what water means to Aboriginal people, and how competition for water impacts on Aboriginal communities. I think that is going to be a really important area for people to understand.”

Every year for the past 15 years, Ohkuma in Japan sends a group of school students to be hosted in Bathurst homes in Central West New South Wales, as part of the sister city relationship that has grown between the two cities. And for several years now those students take part in intense English language courses at Charles Sturt University (CSU). CSU education lecturer Dr Pauline Jones describes it as a “community collaboration. Because of the long-standing relationships we are now seeing younger brothers and sisters of the original students, so we catch up on all their news.” Dr Jones says the lecturers like to trial and evaluate their TESOL programs during the intensive English classes, and the Japanese students English language development is dramatic because as well as the lessons at CSU, they are also speaking English with their Bathurst host families.

Fifteen nursing students who have completed a three-year degree at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo will be farewelled by staff at a special luncheon at the University on Tuesday 15 October. They are among a cohort of 207 nursing students from across the CSU School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health who will graduate at the end of this semester, and who are now are eligible to register with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulatory Authority. Ms Lyn Croxon, program leader for the Bachelor of Nursing in the CSU School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, said, “The students have just returned to the campus after eight weeks of placement, four weeks of which focused on the transition to practice as a Registered Nurse. They received invaluable support from the staff in the various hospitals in which they undertook the clinical placement. Clinical practice is an integral and valuable component of the course, preparing our future nurses for the workplace, and the University thanks the regional health services for their support of our programs.” The students come from Dubbo and the surrounding regional towns of Gilgandra, Cobar, Narromine, Parkes and Narrabri. The majority of graduates will accept positions as Registered Nurses with the Western NSW Local Health Network, while some individuals have been offered positions in Newcastle, Wollongong and Gosford.