As the Orange Campus celebrates new beginnings with Charles Sturt University, spring is also being celebrated on the Campus with the birth of the first CSU Orange foal for 2006. The black colt was delivered in the early hours of Saturday morning 16 September. The colt has joined the greatly expanded equine course at CSU, with extensive facilties at Orange joining those on the Wagga Wagga Campus. “The colt’s grandsire is a renowned European dressage stallion, so he is quite a ‘special little man’ and he seems to know that already,” says Equine Centre Manager Cheryl Gander.

To celebrate the launch of Charles Sturt University’s Pharmacy course in Orange, an ornate piece of local history has returned to the city after spending several years in Wagga Wagga. Two ornate carboys the large traditional glass vessels that are a recognised symbol of pharmacy were originally donated by Max McCarthy, the previous long time proprietor of McCarthy’s Pharmacy in Orange, to the Pharmacy course at CSU Wagga Wagga Campus in recognition of the establishment of the first pharmacy course offered in inland Australia. In the 18th & 19th centuries the carboy was used to show customers a sample or 'specie' of the drugs they would use in compounding medicines. One of these ornately decorated 50-centimetre tall jars has been returned to Orange to mark the introduction of CSU’s Pharmacy course at the Orange Campus. Mr McCarthy and Malcolm Rosborough, the current owner of McCarthy Pharmacy and a governor of the CSU Pharmacy Foundation will visit CSU Orange Campus to place the carboy on permanent display at the Pharmacy laboratory.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) journalism graduate, Courtney Trenwith has won the Minister’s Award for Excellence at the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) Excellence in Education Journalism Awards. Ms Trenwith received $3 000, as well as high praise for her work. Chair of the ACDE, CSU’s Associate Professor Jo-anne Reid, said Ms Trenwith’s submission was “absolutely outstanding. I was especially impressed that Courtney looked at the human side of education, not just the big issues”. Ms Trenwith says she arrived at the Awards ceremony in Canberra expecting to receive the News category, and was stunned to receive the overall excellence award. She says she loves her work at the Illawarra Mercury newspaper, saying “education was the only round I ever wanted to do”.

A partnership between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Port Macquarie-Hastings Council has taken a step forward with today’s signing of a memorandum of understanding that could lead to the construction of a food, soil and water research centre. Council will contribute the land component of the project and be responsible for the day-to-day operation and staffing of the research centre. The new centre will enable CSU to focus on laboratory-based teaching and research while supporting the Mid North Coast Education and Skills Strategy. CSU’s Head of Campus in Port Macquarie, Professor Ross Chambers, has congratulated Council on its vision for regionally-based science. “Science education and research are essential for the sustainability and strength of regional communities,” he said. “This will encourage local people to take up careers in science and ensure that science engages with regional needs.” Professor Chambers added that CSU especially welcomed the focus on food, soil and water. “Science has a major role to play in meeting the challenges of food security, quality and bio-safety, and in ensuring the quality and sustainability of regional industries and regional environments.” Federal government education funding of around $4.3 million dollars will now be sought to help make the project a reality.

Six Charles Sturt University (CSU) early childhood education students will undertake a community project in Dubbo that will focus on the importance of transition to primary school for small children. Titled Working Together for Children: Strengthening Transition Pathways, the project will highlight the importance of a positive transition experience to ensure children move into the school environment successfully. The Working Together for Children project aims to help the community recognise that the early years are the most important of a child’s life and their early experiences can influence their learning in following years. “Positive relationships between early childhood professionals, families, carers and schools are an integral aspect of supporting transition from the home or early childhood setting into the school,” said project representative Corina Windsor.

Artwork by the contemporary painter and printmaker David Serisier, who was born in Orange in 1958, has now entered the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Art Collection and is on permanent display at CSU’s Orange Campus. Produced in 2001, the two large images are formed by layers of rectangles glued on on paper and stacked like ”Quisenaire” rods. The works were chosen to display the great range of his colour palate – one very dark and the other light. “We’re thrilled to have the paintings hanging in our main administration building,” Head of Campus Professor Kevin Parton said. “They certainly have provoked a great deal of conversation amongst staff and visitors to the campus.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will officially welcome the Orange Campus to the CSU family this Friday 8 September. The new Head of Orange Campus, Professor Kevin Parton, says staff are optimistic about the move to CSU. “There has been a sense that the Orange Campus has been trying to find its natural home,” he said. “The campus really should have become part of Charles Sturt University when it initially moved from being a college. The Orange Campus is now seen as a jewel in the crown for the University,” he said. The opening ceremony, to be lead by Professor Parton and Acting CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ross Chambers, starts at 2.30pm in the Templer's Mill Bar, also known as the Student Association Function Room.

A passion for rural health has inspired Dr Debbie Burton in her role as senior lecturer in biomedical science at Charles Sturt University’s Orange Campus. “My son and father both have asthma,” Dr Burton says, “and my cousin died from a pneumonia-related illness so I am very passionate about research into how the lung functions.” Her research into the rural prevalence and management of asthma has looked intensely at the implementing of new techniques, rural health access, and environmental triggers. Australia has the third highest prevalence of childhood asthma in the world, with over 2.2 million people suffering from asthma including one in six children. Dr Burton will demonstrate her work as part of the Community Day to be held on Orange Campus this Saturday 9 September, from 10.30am to 4pm.

Australia’s Young Endeavour national youth sail training program “builds positive social capital” according to a study released by the Federal Government. Charles Sturt University students Sarah Poulos and Tom Fisher agree. “I sailed a few years ago and met a whole group of absolutely fantastic people,” says Sarah, currently in her fourth year of a special education teaching degree on Dubbo Campus and the recipient of a two-year scholarship from the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children. Tom sailed in July and says “it was awesome. It exceeded my expectations tenfold. You build personal confidence which gives you the ability to do anything you want.” Tom is an agribusiness student from Wagga Wagga Campus who went on a student exchange to Kentucky, USA last year for six months, and is off to Japan soon on a Mitsui travel scholarship.