CSU Media wishes you all a happy and safe festive season and looks forward to working with you in 2007.

International students from around the world will be welcomed this week to Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga and, for some, to Australia. Approximately 35 students from South Korea, Canada, America, Ireland, Nepal, Zimbabwe, India and Malaysia will undertake undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in disciplines such as business, health and environmental sciences. CSU’s International Student Support Officer, Ms Rachel Ayton, said Orientation Week was an important time for international students, as it laid the foundation for their lives and studies at CSU and in the Border region. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know our new students and look forward to helping them settle into their new environment on the Border,” Ms Ayton said. On Friday 24 February, some of the group will visit the oz.e.wildlife Sanctuary to meet the ‘locals’, starting after 10.30am and leaving at 12.30pm. A second group of international students will arrive at 2.30pm.

Three Charles Sturt University (CSU) students have topped the University’s sparkling wine production course in 2006. The wine science students - Sophie Houghton, Graeme Scott and Steve Balog - each received 12 bottles of wine from Domaine Chandon, Australia’s leading producer of sparkling wine. Subject Coordinator, Professor Geoff Scollary, said that the contribution of Domaine Chandon to the teaching program was a major factor in the success of the final year Sparkling Wine Production subject. “Students get the opportunity to taste wines, to blend wines ready for commercial release, and to hear from leading sparkling wine makers,” he said. The School of Wine and Food Sciences has a long history of collaboration with Domaine Chandon, with the company’s CEO, Dr Tony Jordan as the first wine science lecturer at CSU in the late 1970s.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange will welcome approximately 150 new students on Sunday 19 February when they arrive to register for on campus accommodation before the start of Orientation Week (‘O Week’) on Monday. They will join about 300 continuing students for the start of session one of the new academic year a week later on Monday 27 February. Dr Heather Robinson, the Head of Campus at CSU in Orange, said, “Orientation Week is always an exciting time, and we look forward to welcoming new students and the many parents who will visit on registration day. It is important to make the students’ tranistion to university life as smooth as possible, and all our staff are focused on this goal.” The students will register for their on campus accommodation between 12noon to 4pm on Sunday 19 at the Templers Mill Bar on campus. An accommodation information session for students and parents is scheduled at 4.30pm, to be followed by a barbeque. The University expects about 3 000 new domestic students and 260 new international students on its NSW campuses for its first intake this year, and a further 5 000 new domestic distance education students.

Like a lot of Australia’s fauna, the Squirrel Glider’s habitat is being eroded by human population pressures. Now the small tree-loving marsupials are being offered new homes in a collaborative project between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Riverina TAFE. A "work-for-the-dole" team, using the TAFE workshops at Thurgoona, is currently constructing over 200 nest boxes for Squirrel Gliders, which will soon be placed in the conservation area between CSU and TAFE and other areas at Thurgoona. Three kilometres of barb wire fencing which can be hazardous to the gliders has been replaced, and five hectares of cleared land adjoining the area will be revegetated during 2007 to provide valuable food. The project will provide an important opportunity to study the habits of the sugar glider and it is also intended that local school students and Landcare groups will monitor the site.

Three Charles Sturt University (CSU) academics are on the 2010-11 judging panel for the prestigious Australian poetry prize, the Mary Gilmore Award, presented by the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) for the best first book of poetry published by an Australian in the preceding two years. The academics include panel chair Mr David Gilbey, an adjunct senior lecturer in English at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences; Dr Mark Macleod, senior lecturer in English; and Director of Booranga Writers’ Centre at CSU in Wagga Wagga, Dr Derek Motion. Mr Gilbey said, “Poets from all over Australia were represented in this year’s Award and the preoccupations and styles showed the variousness, intensity and virtuosity of the current Australian ‘new’ poetry scenes: metropolitan/rural/coastal; professional/political/personal; formal/free; lyrical/surreal; and in size, from chapter books to full 100-plus page collections.” Six poets have been named on the short list from the 27 titles submitted by publishers. The winner of the Mary Gilmore Award for 2010-11 will be announced at the Association’s annual conference in New Zealand in July. This event draws together many of the people who organise the study of Australian poetry at universities, plus other writers, teachers, postgraduate students and librarians. The winning poet will have opportunities to meet many of these people during the conference.

As new students settle in to life on campus, St Martin’s College is celebrating 20 years of ministry to young people studying at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. The College is a joint ministry of the Anglican Dioceses of Riverina, and Canberra and Goulburn, offering self-catered residential accommodation to CSU students in Wagga Wagga. The milestone was marked by a weekend of celebrations on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 February which included tours, an anniversary dinner, a book launch, and a service of worship in the newly-renovated College Chapel. The new Garden of Reflection for the chapel was also blessed and dedicated by Bishop Doug Stevens from the Diocese of the Riverina. The garden features olive hedges, a pool of reflection, a waterfall, outdoor seating and an altar. The Head of St Martin’s College, the Reverend Jenny Willsher, hopes the garden will benefit staff and students. “This is a sacred space people can bring their stress, sadness, sorrows, and challenges, as well as their joys and celebrations, and find themselves renewed and refreshed.”

The role of librarians and teachers in preventing cyber-bullying will be discussed in a public lecture hosted by Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Information Studies on Wednesday 29 February. In her lecture at CSU in Wagga Wagga, the Director of School Information Studies at McGill University in Canada, Associate Professor France Bouthillier, will explore how the popularity of social media and the commercialisation of new technology have the potential to bring cyber-bullying into public spaces such as libraries. CSU Research Fellow, Dr Paul Scifleet, said the School of Information Studies is excited to be hosting the seminar. “Balancing safety and a duty of care with access to social media in this rich information landscape is a genuine concern for us all,” he said. “Dr Bouthillier's presentation will be a valuable exploration of the current issues and challenges faced by those who provide public access.”

Academics in health disciplines will hold a day-long trial in the new $2.8 million regional inter-professional clinical simulation centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Friday 24 February. Coordinator of the trial, Dr Ann Lazarsfeld-Jensen, a lecturer in the Bachelor of Clinical Practice in the School of Biomedical Sciences, said, “This first event in the new clinical simulation centre will be an exciting pilot run for a major research project, with another exercise scheduled for April. We will run five scenarios on a tight schedule using ‘actors’ (staff) from the School of Biomedical Science. Medical professionals are generally taught in their own discipline groups and have little contact with each other until they get into clinical settings. In the simulation centre, we will have inter-disciplinary groups – nurses, doctors, registrars, paramedics and other health professionals – working together in the research project.” The $153 000 research project is funded by Australian General Practice Education (GPET), in collaboration with Beyond Medical Education (BME) which is responsible for the further training of general practitioners in this region.