Good practice in delivering qualifications through the workplace is the subject of the next seminar organised by Charles Sturt University's (CSU) Research in Vocational Education and Training group or RIVET. Six research projects being conducted by CSU and TAFE NSW – Riverina Institute will be outlined during the seminar this Friday 26 October. Titled Research Good Practice in Workplace Delivery of Qualifications, the seminar will be held in the Wool Room, Primary Industries Centre of TAFE NSW, Coolamon Road, North Wagga Wagga from 9:30am until 3.30pm. Endorsed by the Australian VET Research Association as national OctoberVET seminar, the event is sponsored by CSU. A program, including a list of speakers, can be found here.

The head of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) innovative Djirruwang Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health program, Wayne Rigby, is guest speaker of a meeting of carers and friends of people with a mental illness. The free information session in Queanbeyan, NSW on Thursday 25 October will examine the “what, why and how” of psychiatric medications. The event has been organised by the advocacy group Carer Assist. A veteran of the rural mental health field, Mr Rigby was recently honoured by the Mental Health Association NSW, who presented him with a 2007 Mental Health Matters Award in Sydney. Read more here.

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Centre for Inland Health is hosting a community symposium entitled Inland Health – Planning Together for the Future on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 November at CSU Wagga Wagga Campus. The meeting will bring together CSU researchers, staff and students as well as health service providers and community representatives from across southern NSW. The aim of the symposium is to discuss the current activities, priority issues requiring attention and future priorities. The event is supported by the University and Australian Health Management.

Work Choices is only the latest change in Australia’s industrial relations landscape. Charles Sturt University (CSU) industrial relations expert Dr Bill Robbins will discuss the first industrial relations revolution that began in October 1907 with the Harvester case during a free public lecture on Thursday 18 October. The case created a legal decision which became one of the most famous in the industrial, social and political history of Australia, and which also introduced the world’s first significant minimum wage. “On the centenary of the Harvester Living Wage case, it is worth reflecting on how industrial relations can affect the quality of life of the majority of Australians," said Dr Robbins, a senior lecturer in management and industrial relations with CSU’s School of Business & Information Technology. He has researched the management of Australian labour from Australia's convict origins to the contemporary Work Choices environment. The lecture, entitled A World First: the centenary of the Harvester case, starts at 6pm in the CSU Nowik Lecture Theatres, Guinea St, Albury.

Two innovative Charles Sturt University (CSU) research projects will focus on delivering improved education to the population of rural Australia. CSU researchers, lead by senior lecturer at the School of Teacher Education, Dr Linda Harrison, will conduct research into improving and maintaining quality and access in centre-based, government-regulated child care in Australia. Of major concern to CSU researchers is improving the adverse outcomes of poor quality child care, especially for more vulnerable children. A second CSU research team, headed by Professor Jo-Anne Reid, Associate Dean at the Faculty of Education, will focus on renewing rural teacher education and sustaining schooling for sustainable communities, in an attempt to avert a national crisis in attracting teachers and other professionals to rural areas. The two CSU research projects will receive over half a million dollars over the next three years under the Federal Government’s Discovery grant scheme.

A leading Charles Sturt University (CSU) and NSW Department of Primary Industries researcher is warning of dire consequences for Australia’s land, environment, farming industries and rural and regional communities in the face of the crippling drought. Professor Deirdre Lemerle, Director of the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, says, “The current drought is having huge negative impacts on the Australian environment, its people, and our capacity to feed ourselves. Lack of water has drastically reduced local food production and food prices will go up for consumers.” Professor Lemerle also warns that “Australian farmers are highly skilled at drought management, but the droughts of the last few years are amongst the worst on record and are severely testing farmers' resilience. Drought is reducing land managers capacity to protect the environment and make a profit from production. Social and economic effects are causing depression, family disintegration and many other social costs. Government and industry must support land managers if Australia is to be self-sufficient in food production and for agriculture to remain environmentally sustainable," says Professor Lemerle.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) students and staff are being encouraged to roll up their sleeves and support the Wagga Blood Bank’s first ever Club Red Corporate Challenge, a corporate blood donor program designed for businesses and community organisations in Wagga Wagga. The Club Red Corporate Challenge is aimed at rallying everyone in the Riverina business community throughout 2007 to help save lives. The challenge runs until Monday 31 December 2007. ”Each blood donation could save up to nine lives,” says CSU spokesperson Roxanne Loche, “and giving blood is an ideal way for us to get involved in a vital community service”. Appointments to donate blood are available by calling 13 1495.

Staff and students at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Albury-Wodonga Campus are being encouraged to get healthy and take part in the national Ride to Work Day this Wednesday 17 October. Across Australia, cyclists will saddle-up and peddle to Ride to Work breakfasts, designed to promote, encourage, inspire and share the joy of cycling. Participants can ride solo at a time that suits or join the group ride which will depart from the bottom of the Dean Street bridge, next to Baker Motors, in Albury at 7.45am and travelling along the bypass cycle path to the University’s  Thurgoona site. A free breakfast will be available for all who travel to Thurgoona using active transport, including bikes, walking, blades, skates, running, or scooters. The breakfast will be held at CSU’s Gums Café between 8.30am and 10.30am.

Competing views on the role of God will be the subject of a public lecture in Orange next week. Titled Richard Dawkins’ burka – is his world view too narrow?, Professor David Goldney, Adjunct Professor at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Rural Management, will discuss The God Delusion, by British scientist and academic Professor Richard Dawkins. Although both are scientists, Professor Goldney is a self-described ‘Christian in the evangelical-orthodox tradition’. Professor Dawkins is an atheist, who currently holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. “In the lecture I will examine Professor Dawkins’ major arguments and what I see as the common ground between Dawkin’s and my views, as well as areas where there is significant disagreement,” Professor Goldney said. “I will also chart a way forward to ensure that this debate will be constructive and life-changing, rather than vitriolic and life-denying.” The public lecture will be held at the conference room, CSU Orange Campus, Leeds Parade, at 6pm on Wednesday 24 October. CSU wine and cheese will be served after the lecture.