New buildings at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Orange and Wagga Wagga are rapidly taking shape as the University prepares to welcome the inaugural students in its new dental and oral health therapy courses in 2009. After receiving hundreds of applications from across Australia and overseas, CSU is preparing to fill 40 places in the Bachelor of Dental Science program starting at Orange and 20 places in the Bachelor of Oral Health (Therapy/Hygiene) program starting at Wagga Wagga. “We are thrilled with the calibre of applicants,” said Associate Professor in Oral Health Barbara Taylor. “The student selection process has been very competitive, particularly for dentistry as it included an online questionnaire and interview.” “We had a diverse and skilled applicant pool and are confident this will result in a committed student group,” added the Head of the School of Dentistry and Health Sciences, Professor Ward Massey. Work on the dentistry buildings in Orange and oral health therapy facilities at Wagga continued over Christmas, as well as progress in the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment such as dental chairs and clinical software.

The Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University (CSU), Professor Ian Goulter, announced the appointment today of Mr Ian Macintosh, AM, as the first Pro-Chancellor of the University. The Pro-Chancellor is a newly created position that will act as an ambassador for the University in the Bathurst and central western communities, including deputising for the Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor at ceremonies. Mr Macintosh is a former Mayor of Bathurst Regional Council and Deputy Chancellor of CSU. He served as a member of the University Council for eight years, including four years as Deputy Chancellor. “Ian is a wonderful servant of the community and a great advocate of Charles Sturt University, and the unanimous endorsement of his appointment by the University Council to this important position reflects the esteem in which he is held within the University,” Professor Goulter said. “It is a great opportunity to continue my connection with one of Australia’s most progressive Universities and to support its development as the national University of inland Australia,” Mr Macintosh said. Mr Macintosh will hold the position for a period of 2 years until December 2010.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic has called on the mediation community to consider that it now deserves the title of ‘a profession’. Associate Professor Anne Ardagh addressed the question ‘Is Mediation now a Profession?’ during her recent address to a dinner in Canberra to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Conflict Resolution Service (CRS) in the ACT. “Even though there is no one recognised path to becoming a mediator, mediators are becoming more educated through university and TAFE qualifications, and perhaps on quality assurance grounds the mediation community should embrace the idea that it now deserves the status of a profession,” said Professor Ardagh. The CSU academic believes mediation is at a stage that perhaps psychology or social work or counselling was at not so long ago.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) students are making the battle against obesity and eating disorders personal with a cooking competition to show healthy eating can be cheap as well as nutritious, quick, tasty and good looking. Three student groups – the Nutrition and Dietetics (or Nut) Club, the Social Workers Club and the Health Action Team – are gathering favourite student recipes for a recipe book, with the top 12 recipes entered into a cook-off competition to be held in October on the University’s Wagga Wagga Campus. A panel of local judges will name the winner of a $150 voucher for groceries. President of the Nut Club, Mr Kingsley Vance, hopes that initiatives like this will help the communities within CSU campuses – Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga – to improve their food choices. “University students are often at risk of not eating a nutritious diet, so our competition is all about raising awareness of good nutrition in all our communities,” he said.

An academic with a decidedly ‘green’ bent has won the inaugural Albury-Wodonga Environmental Achievement Award for his activities with Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Albury-Wodonga. Education lecturer Dr John Rafferty, from the Murray School of Education and Institute for Land, Water and Society, has won this award for his development of the ‘Inland Living Experience’ concept, which promotes the belief that connection to the environment helps build a healthy, happy and sustainable lifestyle. “The Inland Living Experience promotes research and education by engaging with and understanding our environment as we experience significant change,” said Dr Rafferty. The award encourages CSU staff and students to be active in minimising the environmental impact of their everyday activities and increasing environmental awareness. Dr Rafferty will receive his award at a function at the University’s environmentally sustainable Thurgoona site at 10.30am on Tuesday 23 December.

Ten Indonesian national sports coaches are undertaking intensive training for an Advanced Certificate in Sport Conditioning at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Bathurst this week following the success of the Indonesian team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Dr Stephen Bird from the CSU School of Human Movement Studies said, “The Olympics success has led to CSU signing a contract for the University to provide expertise to the Indonesian national team in the lead-up to the South-East Asian Games in 2009. CSU will provide coaching and technical support, particularly for strength and conditioning, for all athletes across 25 sports that include fencing, boxing, taekwondo, canoeing, track and field and badminton.” The Indonesian coaches conclude their CSU training on Friday 19 December, and then in January 2009 Dr Bird and colleague Mr Benjamin Barrington-Higgs will travel to Indonesia to launch the Physical Preparation Unit for 227 athletes in the Indonesian National Elite Athlete Program.

The changing communication needs of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) multi-campus environment have led the institution to secure the services of global company, Interactive Intelligence. The firm, which provides contact centre and IP telephony products and services, has won the contract to deploy a unified communications platform across CSU by the end of 2009. . In a competitive tender process, the Interactive Intelligence all-in-one IP communications software suite, Customer Interaction Center® (CIC), was selected. “The aging PABX platform is increasingly difficult to maintain and unable to scale with the University’s changing communications requirements,” said Mr Phil Roy, Director of Operations at CSU’s Division of Information Technology. “The new unified communications solution will be implemented by Interactive Intelligence partner, CallTime Solutions. It is unique in Australia in that it is a single software platform with several features. In addition to all campuses, the University will roll out the new IP telephony system to the University’s new student residential accommodation under construction at CSU at Bathurst, Thurgoona and Wagga Wagga, It will also be deployed for the University’s new dentistry and oral health therapy program.”

In conjunction with the final Charles Sturt University (CSU) Council meeting for 2008, to be held in Bathurst on Thursday 18 December, representatives of the University, Bathurst Regional Council (BRC) and Orange City Council (OCC) will celebrate the continuing success of collaboration between these key regional organisations. CSU Chancellor Mr Lawrie Willett, AO, and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Goulter, will host an end of year catch-up at the University on Wednesday 17 December for members of the CSU Council with local government partners including the Mayor of Orange, Cr Reg Kidd, the Mayor of Bathurst, Cr Paul Toole and Bathurst Regional Councillors, as well as BRC General Manager, Mr David Sherley, and other senior staff.

You have your results for university admission, they are different to what you expected, and you want to change your enrolment at university. Current students and staff from Charles Sturt University (CSU), particularly at Albury-Wodonga, will be available on Thursday 18 December to advise prospective students and their parents and friends on the process. CSU advisers will be on hand to discuss alternative pathways for prospective students in 2009, as well as accommodation and student services available at the University’s Albury city and Thurgoona sites. The Course Information Day will be held between 2 and 6pm in the Nowik Lecture Theatre, Guinea St, Albury. For further details on the day, contact CSU Prospective Student Adviser, Ms Rebecca Gale Collins, on mobile 0409 975 085.