Second year acting students from Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Wagga Wagga Campus will take on Anton Chekhov’s complex, classic play, The Cherry Orchard, in a studio presentation called Vagabonds at the Shrine: fragments of The Cherry Orchard. Dr Ashley Wain, lecturer in the CSU School of Visual and Performing Arts, said the students find Chekhov a challenge “but also a joy. If you can play Chekhov then you can really act - it is fantastic teaching material. Chekhov’s vision of the world is so subtle and precise. Actors have to develop depth and fullness of imagination, compassion and empathy. Working on Chekov helps to refine their artistic sensibilities and to enrich them as people. Chekhov had an incredible influence on the whole birth of modern theatre.” Vagabonds at the Shrine: fragments of The Cherry Orchard in will be presented at Drama Studio One, Performing Arts, Wagga Wagga Campus from Tuesday 14 until Sunday 19 November. Tickets at the door, or call 02 6933 2473.

United States Consul General Mr Niels Marquardt will be immersed in environmental sustainability when he visits the award winning campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga on Wednesday 10 October. Hosted by the University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Vann, and Head of Albury-Wodonga Campus, Professor Julia Coyle, Mr Marquardt will view the environmentally friendy features of the Thurgoona site, from the energy-saving buildings to extensive water-saving management facilties and dry composting toilets. “We are proud of Charles Sturt University’s environmentally sensitive campus in Albury-Wodonga and we want to show what can be done with ingenuity and thoughtful investment over a number of years,” Professor Vann said. During his visit, Mr Marquardt will also meet with CSU staff and students, some of whom recently completed overseas clinical work in Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Childhood obesity, promoting good health to rural men, chronic back pain for women and work options for people living with HIV/AIDS are some of the topics being addressed by Charles Sturt University (CSU) students at an occupational therapy conference to be held next week in Albury. Thirty six graduating students from the University’s occupational therapy course are presenting papers on these and other topics in this rapidly developing field to health professionals from the NSW-Victorian Border region. The two day conference will be start at 9am on Tuesday 21 November in the Nowik Auditorium, CSU’s Albury city site, Guinea St, Albury, finishing at 1pm on Wednesday 22 November.

The cohort of nursing graduates from Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo will be farewelled with a luncheon by staff and fellow students from the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health on Thursday 11 October. Lecturer in nursing, Ms Cathy Maginnis, said the 17 students graduating from CSU in Dubbo are among 163 students across the University’s five campuses who are graduating from the Bachelor of Nursing in December. “This is the 11th year of internal nursing graduates from Charles Sturt University in Dubbo,” Ms Maginnis said. “The students are primarily mature-age women who have juggled family, employment and study. We also have two males in the group, and students who have travelled each week to attend classes from regional towns such as Coonabarabran, Tooraweenah, and Gilgandra. All have offers of new graduate nursing positions to commence in 2013, so this will be a great boost to our regional registered nurse workforce. They aim to work in a variety of discipline specialisations including medical, surgical, emergency, intensive care, and paediatrics. The majority will take up roles in Dubbo and the surrounding areas of Coonabarabran, Gilgandra and Wellington, and one student will practice in Orange.”

The annual exhibition by graduating photography students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga is predicted to be the largest show in its five year history. Twenty Bachelor of Arts (Photography) students from the School of Communication and Creative Industries at CSU will exhibit up to 60 photographs, ranging in size from one to two metres wide at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery from Friday 19 October to Sunday 9 December. Photography and digital imaging lecturer Mr James Holcombe said, “The exhibition has become a much-anticipated event on the local Art Gallery calendar. Opening nights last year and in 2010 attracted crowds of more than 300 people.” Lucid: CSU Photography Graduation Exhibition will be officially opened by CSU Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Andrew Vann at 6pm on Saturday 20 October. The photography students are due to graduate from CSU in Wagga Wagga on Tuesday 11 December. One exhibitor, Mr Jacob Raupach said, “This exhibition will be an excellent opportunity to see out the course with a big community event. I am extremely proud to be exhibiting my work alongside some really talented photographers."

Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo will host a screening of the Freedom Ride 2011 documentary as part of a meeting of the Wiradjuri Elders Group and visitors from Orange this week. The documentary tells the story of last year’s Freedom Ride re-enactment which visited the University’s Dubbo Campus and Orange on the way from Sydney to Moree. The re-enactment traced the path of Charlie Perkins’ famous Freedom Ride bus trip in 1965, which helped break down segregation laws in Australia. Participants camped at the Dubbo Campus on their 2 300km, two-week trek through 21 regional communities. Community relations officer for CSU’s Centre for Indigenous Studies, Mr John Nolan, said Youth Connections staff from the NSW Central Coast, who organised the re-enactment, would address the meeting and distribute copies of the documentary. “The re-enactment participants met local elders and community members on their way through Dubbo last year and were given a warm welcome by the University, and the event organisers can now tell the local elders and community about their achievements,” Mr Nolan said. “Charles Sturt University’s regular Wiradjuri Elders Group meetings have helped forge a great connection between the University and the local community.”

The importance of education to individuals and communities in regional Australia is the focus of a public lecture by a leading Indigenous academic at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo on Wednesday 24 October. Professor Jeannie Herbert, AM, the Foundation Chair of Indigenous Studies at the Centre for Indigenous Studies, at CSU will reflect on her own research when she delivers her lecture titled Empowering Communities. Professor Herbert has 25 years experience as a teacher in schools and 17 years in tertiary education. Before joining CSU in November 2009, she served in a range of roles at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory, Queensland’s James Cook University and the University of New England in northern NSW. The public lecture is at 6pm on Wednesday 24 October in lecture theatre/room 422 at Charles Sturt University, 8 Tony McGrane Place, Dubbo. Please RSVP to Ms Christine Stewart on (02) 6885 7370 or send an email.

Research that defines the NSW central west labour market will be presented at a lunchtime seminar from 12.30pm to 2pm at Charles Sturt University’s Bathurst Campus on Wednesday 1 November. Dr Parikshit Basu from the School of Marketing & Management will present work based on research he co-authored with Professor John Hicks and Richard Sappey. Titled Overview of an ‘Established Rural Regional Inland’ Australian Labour Market Dr Basu analyses the operation of a local labour market in the NSW Central West, the oldest European-settled inland region of mainland Australia. It seeks to contribute to a classification of labour markets that would be useful for forming policies at local, State and Federal levels. The seminar will be held in Syndicate Room 2 in the Centre for Professional Development, CSU Bathurst Campus, from 12.30 pm.

Sprung Festival 06, a showcase of performance, media and theatre from final year Communication students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) is underway for 2006. Running for the next three weeks, theatre / media students will “dazzle” audiences at various venues around Bathurst, according to Annabel Scholes, lecturer in the School of Communication at CSU’s Bathurst Campus. She says the students have used a variety of performance skills learned over the past three years to make theatre which is “fun, entertaining and witty.” Shows include a twisted coming of age tale set in a circus tent, reality television theatre, musical comedy, a psychological thriller set in a psychiatric ward, a high school rock concert, absurdist drama and a classic love story from Greek mythology.