Director of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the former Director of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, Dr Dawn Casey, PSM, FAHA has been appointed to the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Council. Dr Casey is the newest member of the University’s governing body following her appointment by the NSW Minister for Education and Training, the Hon. Verity Firth, MP, on recommendation from the CSU Council. Dr Casey, who is nationally and internationally recognised for her leadership of the Powerhouse Museum, the National Museum and the Western Australian Museum, has been appointed until June 2011. Dr Casey has made a major contribution to Indigenous policies and programs in Australia as well as to Australia’s cultural heritage, including. the establishment of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. She also initiated the joint Commonwealth-State response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody as a senior executive in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Dr Casey’s appointment comes as the University celebrates the 20th anniversary of its establishment through the Charles Sturt University Act 1989. Read more here.

As part of the Charles Sturt University (CSU) 20th anniversary celebrations in 2009, a new art exhibition will be opened this week to highlight more than a century of Australian monotypes. The exhibition, MONO uno: Australian Monotypes in the Charles Sturt University Art Collection, will be opened at 6pm, Friday 27 March by Mr Damian Kelly, General Manager of the Print Council of Australia. “The CSU Art Collection holds more than 80 monotypes. Some of these are historically important, such as the work by A H Fullwood, ‘Valley View’, or R C W Bunny, ‘Reclining Nude’; the latter will tour in November through the Art Gallery of NSW to three capital cities,” said curator Mr Thomas Middlemost. The exhibition is one of many events to mark 20 years of CSU during 2009. See more 20th anniversary events here.

Ensuring a bright future for Australia’s agricultural industry through improved education of its future leaders will bring academics and industry representatives together at Charles Sturt University (CSU) at Wagga Wagga on Thursday 26 March. Hosted by the CSU School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences, the industry advisory day will focus on the improvements made of the Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree, including the introduction of work placement in the course’s final year. “Various agricultural industry organisations will attend to help forge new relationships between the employers and educators of agriculturalists and to work on plans for the future to improve agricultural education in Australia,” said CSU lecturer Dr Alison Southwell. “By working together to produce the next generation of agriculturalists, we can make our graduates more ‘work ready’ and more capable of handling the challenges that agriculture faces in the future.”

Two Bachelor of Arts (Photography) students had works selected in 2008 to hang in the National Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. The students, Ms Kate Lewis, who is now studying a Masters of Arts Practice at CSU, and Mr Matt Regan joined staff from the CSU School of Visual and Performing Arts at the exhibition’s opening in Canberra on Thursday 19 March. “While awards are always celebrated and welcomed, for our students’ work to be selected alongside photographers with much longer professional careers is a significant achievement both for Kate and Matt as well as our photography staff,” said Head of the School of Visual and Performing Arts, Associate Professor Margaret Woodward. Read more about the students’ portraits here. 

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) team lead by award-winning researcher Associate Professor Gavin Ash has developed a novel approach to attacking exotic snails that devastate crop and pasture production across southern Australia. Professor Ash and his team have found a local nematode that injects itself into the snails and delivers a deadly bacterium that kills the snail and allows the nematode to feed on the decaying body. The round worm, from the Rhabditids group, was collected from soil near Wagga Wagga, NSW, and is endemic to Australia. They kill the common white snail, white Italian snail, conical snail and small conical snail within four to eight days of being introduced. “These pests are a significant threat to Australian grain exports. They feed on emerging crops, clog up farm machinery and contaminate harvested grain which puts our exports at risk due to quarantine problems,” Professor Ash said. Based on CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus, the research is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

The Charles Sturt University (CSU) community was saddened to hear of the recent death of Mrs Sheila Swain, AM. Mrs Swain was first appointed to the Council of Mitchell College of Advanced Education, a predecessor institution of CSU, in 1981.  She became Deputy Chair in 1984 and was Chair from 1986 to 1988. The building housing the School of Nursing and Midwifery on the University’s Bathurst Campus was named after Mrs Swain in 2000. Mrs Swain was a councillor on Hunters Hill Municipal Council in Sydney from 1971 to 1991, becoming the first woman elected mayor of the suburb in 1980-82 and was re-elected in 1987-89. She was also active in the Australian Local Government Women's Association - as treasurer, secretary, president of the NSW branch and later national president. In 1986 Mrs Swain was named Outstanding Woman of the Year by the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women, and in 1987 was appointed a member of the Order of Australia. In 1989 she established and funded four scholarships for female students at CSU suffering financial hardship.

The potential of ‘biochar’ for storing carbon in the soil and improving soil health is being investigated by Charles Sturt University (CSU) and a Wagga Wagga community group as part of the University’s commitment to sustainability. Established last December, the CSU Green Office is facilitating community initiatives in a campus-wide drive to reduce energy consumption and water usage. “An initial meeting held in February attracted 18 people including local businessman, farmers, Wagga Wagga City Councillors and representatives from TAFE NSW Riverina Institute and the NSW Department of Primary Industries and included discussions of biochar,” said Mr William Adlong, Manager of CSU Green. According to the CSIRO, biochar is charcoal created from the heating of organic materials such as crop waste or animal manure in a low oxygen environment.“The group is interested in the potential of biochar to store carbon from the atmosphere for long periods and mitigate climate change, as well as improve soil nutrient and moisture retention and generate electricity from the heat created while producing biochar,” Mr Adlong said.

Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturers were the first Australian academics to recently visit Vladivostok in far eastern Russia to establish contacts and foster collaboration with the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the Far Eastern National University (FENU). Mr Errol Chopping and Dr David Tien, from the CSU School of Accounting and Computer Sciences at Bathurst, held seminars and meetings with key personnel at RAS and FENU to discuss and promote shared project development, collaborative research, and exchange programs for staff and students. Mr Chopping said, “CSU computer science staff have research interests which complement those of the RAS, especially in the use of computer games technology. We detected growing interest to work with Australian universities, government organisations and industry. We even have similar challenges in travel and communications due to our vast and remote locations. A joint conference with RAS is planned for next year.”

With parents aware of the importance of life skills for children, Charles Sturt University (CSU) is offering its first Equine School to be held in the NSW school holidays in April. CSU will also help school students contemplating a career in the horse industry with a tailored holiday course in horse riding. “The school is also ideal for young or green horses to enable their owners to provide valuable exposure away from familiar surroundings, with horses given sound basics to go on with at home,” course coordinator Ms Cheryl Gander said. “Sharing life with horses is a wonderful tool in learning important life skills, especially for younger children and teenagers. Horses can teach things like responsibility, humility and patience – all important in everyday life.” The school will be run by experienced instructors in a safe, controlled environment at the CSU Equine Centre at Orange.