The social, sporting and cultural side of university life will be on show this Friday 2 March when the annual Club’s Day is held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. Hosted by the University’s Student Services, approximately 30 student clubs will be vying for new members from 1pm to 5pm outside the food and beverage venue, eat@20. The student organisations will range from football, hockey and netball clubs, to clubs aligned with courses such as animal science, oral health and acting. Students are being encouraged to join a club to enhance their University experiences. One of the clubs looking for new members will be the University’s Fire Twirling Club. Vice-president and CSU Bachelor of Information Technology, Mr Allan Buckman, said the club had 22 members in 2011 and performed at several student events on-campus last year and again during the recent Orientation Week.

The first students enrolled in courses at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Port Macquarie will commence their studies with Orientation Week. Activities start this Thursday 23 February at 4pm with the official welcome to the campus for around 30 new students and their parents and friends by the newly-appointed Campus Director, Dr Muyesser Durur, and CSU Dean of Studies, Professor Ken Dillon. “Students will get to meet their teaching staff and find out what it’s like to study and work at university,” Dr Durur said. The students will then receive information on the CSU library, support services and academic advice. The new students in Port Macquarie are enrolled in such diverse CSU courses as business studies, social work, and health and rehabilitation science.

There’ll be more than a few proud audience members at the official viewing of a new video to promote Wagga Wagga as a place to visit, to live and to do business. The four minute film, Wagga Wagga…Twice as Good, featuring members of the Wagga City Rugby Men’s Choir and Murrumbidgee Magic singing Eric Bogle’s Shelter, will be launched at 4pm on Saturday 25 February in Wagga Wagga. Produced by Mr Greg Conkey, the new film was directed and edited by Mr Matthew Olsen, a television production lecturer from the School of Communication and Creative Industries at CSU in Wagga Wagga. In addition to the use of the University’s editing and audio equipment, television production lecturer, Mr Patrick Sproule, technical officer, Mr David Hawke, and technical support officer, Mr Andrew Harris, donated their time as sound engineers. Third-year television production student Mr Johannes Sudbrink, from Germany, was employed as camera operator. Mr Olsen said, “I felt, as a local resident, it was important I lend my professional skills to promote the wonders of Wagga Wagga to the wider world. By donating its facilities and staff, Charles Sturt University also shares this view.”

The first group of Aboriginal students enrolled in the new Teacher in Community program at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo will attend an introductory residential school starting on Monday 27 February. Ms Maria Bennet, lecturer at the CSU School of Teacher Education in Dubbo, said the students enrolled in the four-year mainstream Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) will be on campus for their first residential school from Monday 27 February to Friday 2 March, inclusive. “My colleagues, Professor Jo-Anne Reid who devised the program, and project officer Ms Kathryn Walford, and I are delighted with the strong interest in and support for this program from communities across western NSW,” Ms Bennet said. “We look forward to welcoming the three male and 16 female students who come from rural and remote locations in NSW: Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Gilgandra, Walgett, Wilcannia, Bourke, Darlington Point, Brewarrina, Narrabri, Broken Hill, and Dareton. As part of their first orientation program, the students will attend on campus classes and be introduced to the technology and systems that will then support them to continue to study in their communities.” Three other residential schools are scheduled for 23 April, 9 July and 3 September. The pilot project is funded by the Higher Education Participation and Partnership Program (HEPPP) of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

A leading advocate for the establishment of a new rural medical school at Charles Sturt University (CSU) will meet local councillors in Orange on Tuesday 28 February to update them on the University’s bid. Professor John Dwyer, founder of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance and medical consultant to CSU, has been invited to address Orange City Council about the University’s proposal to establish a medical school. Professor Dwyer has been studying the reasons for the rural doctor shortage with colleagues from CSU for the last two years. He has argued recently that projected health budget savings from the federal government’s proposed introduction of means testing for health insurance rebates should be redirected to establishing a new rural medical school at CSU. If the bid proves successful, the School will be located at CSU in Orange. Professor Dwyer will address Council at 5.30pm Tuesday 28 February at the Council Chamber, corner of Byng Street and Lords Place, Orange.

Ms Deb Clarke, a lecturer in the School of Human Movement Studies on Charles Sturt University’s Bathurst Campus, has won the Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award for 2006. Ms Clarke’s ability to engage her students and develop them into critical thinkers and life-long learners was central to her success. “I’m also the chair of the School’s Learning and Teaching Committee. The members have formal meetings where we work through issues, but also informal chats in the corridor about ‘how can I do this better? Or how can I teach that?’ If something’s not working well in my tutorials or my lectures, I will do informal evaluations with the students or ask them to write down a few things confidentially, and then try and modify as much as possible to suit their needs. I just love teaching,” said Ms Clarke.

Coffee is a ubiquitous part of modern life, and disposable coffee cups are a growing problem in waste disposal landfills. The Gums Café at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga is leading the way in sustainability by trialling the use of biodegradable cups that take a year or less to decompose in landfill. These compare favourably to the common disposable cups that can take many years to break down due to the plastic film that lines the cups. Chair of the local Campus Environmental Committee, Dr John Rafferty, said, “Last year, we looked at how people dispose of their cups. They tend to put them in the normal garbage bins, as they have the remains of coffee in them. We would have thousands of cups going through our bins each week. We have decided to do something about it and use biodegradable cups that are much friendlier to the environment and break down much faster than the old cups.”

The Mitchell Student Guild of Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst will again host the annual Kids Day Out charity fundraiser on Saturday 3 March. The director of this year’s Kids Day Out, Ms Alyce Woods, said, “This year’s event promises to be a jam-packed day with appearances from everyone’s favourites, Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego, and Toy Story characters Buzz and Woody, as well as our favourite fairy, Tinkerbell. This year we’ll also have some great rides for both the little kids and the big kids at heart. All proceeds will go to the Bathurst Base Hospital Paediatric Ward, and the local Riding for the Disabled organisation.” The event will also feature carnival rides, kids craft making stalls, an animal petting zoo, jumping castles, barbeque and food stalls, candy and show bags, a community stage with various local musicians and performers, raffles, roving performers, face painting, an ambulance on display, and a special look at our emergency services.

Recent years have seen a rise across Australasia in the construction of new glasshouses and other controlled growth chambers for plant research to replace outdated facilities from the 1950s and 1960s. Scientists, technicians and managers involved in plant biology research in controlled environments will meet at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga from Tuesday 1 May to Thursday 3 May. The A will hold its 6th conference to discuss new facilities in Australia and overseas, the latest technology supporting glasshouses or controlled environments including lighting, electronic controls and robotics, along with the latest research. The conference is being held at the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences, at CSU in Wagga Wagga, where preparations are underway to open a $45 million National Life Sciences Hub in June, which includes a glasshouse complex for advanced research into the interactions between soil, climate and plant biology, and pathology. “It is important to know how plants interact with the climate, particularly the changing climate, in relation to productivity. These facilities are a key part of the research infrastructure required to investigate such interactions,” said Senior Lecturer in Viticulture Dr Dennis Greer. The conference’s keynote speaker is Professor Bruce Bugbee from the Department of Plants, Soils and Biometeorology at Utah State University in the USA.