Doris Bornemann has a big heart. She says two of her loves include photography and also Charles Sturt University (CSU). As a former Student Liaison Officer she often opened her heart - and her home – to CSU students. “I would invite the lonely ones home for a baked dinner and a few home comforts. And the external students used to have regular parties at my house. They would look forward to it every residential school. I was made a Life Member of the Student Union. It was a great honour.” Doris worked at CSU for 20 years. She is also the only non-Academic on the Honour Board. Her contribution to CSU did not stop with her retirement 15 years ago. She now volunteers with the Emeritus Club, which funds “three or four” scholarships every year for CSU students. Doris’s other love, photography, is currently on display at the Bathurst Women’s Health Centre. One hundred and twelve photos reflect her wide ranging interests which take in both man-made and natural landscapes, animals and human portraiture.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is working with the combined Central NSW Councils (CENTROC) to offset skill shortages affecting local government. CSU has offered flexible education programs and additional support to local government staff in target areas such as management, information technology, business, finance, human resources, tourism and marketing. Pat Bradbery, Manager of the Professional Development Unit in the School of Management and Marketing at CSU Bathurst, says a residential school at CSU Dubbo, planned for February 2008, will help the prospective students to “kick-start their study and networking. It will provide access to advanced technology, lecturers and other learning skills support staff”. Mr Bradbery says that CSU already runs a “highly successful postgraduate week-long residential program in Bathurst for local government finance professionals, and the Bachelor of Management provided through the Orange Campus is very well suited to the local government sector. We are in an excellent position to help CENTROC overcome its skills shortage.”

Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Djirruwang Program Bachelor of Health Science (Mental Health) aims to create a critical mass of highly skilled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners to deal with mental health problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This innovative program has been acknowledged by the NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Minister Assisting the Minister for Health (Mental Health) the Hon. Paul Lynch, who described is as a “significant commitment” by CSU. Mr Lynch’s comments came during the official launch of the NSW Aboriginal Mental Health and Well Being Policy 2006-2010 last week on CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus. “The Djirruwang Program meets the national practice standards of the mental health workforce, making Charles Sturt University the first university course to use nationally agreed practice standards in mental health,” he said.

A Charles Sturt University PhD student, Debra Dunstan, has received a prestigious Churchill Fellowship which will allow her to travel to Canada and the United Kingdom. Her PhD examined intervention for pain related to work disability. Using WorkCover NSW guidelines, she developed a rural program to successfully move worker’s compensation recipients back to work. “Typically people are only treated in major metropolitan areas. This model turned out to be very effective. We had significant outcomes.” The Churchill Fellowship will allow her to travel to Canada to examine similar models, as well as the United Kingdom where the idea has been expanded to successfully move social security beneficiaries into work. “I hope to be able to work with governments to develop a community based treatment for people who are on disability support pensions, and that fits in with the Australian government’s Welfare to Work program.” Debra says of the Fellowship, “I was overwhelmed really, it is an honour and a privilege and a very exciting opportunity.”

“The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Art Collection will benefit enormously by the inclusion of this definitive painting by John Peart.  It an exceptional example of the artist’s work, that will serve as an integral part of their collection for generations to come,” says art valuer Randi Linnegar from King Street Galleries in Sydney. She was commenting on an artwork gift to CSU of an abstract painting, Muffled Rhythms 1984. CSU Art Curator Thomas Middlemost describes the “very large and important painting from a significant Sydney artist” as an “an intensely challenging artwork, which reflects the artist’s difficult path in the Australian art world. Muffled Rhythms, 1984 will exist as a ‘jewel in the crown’ of the University’s collection, which includes monotypes by Peart and paintings by James Gleeson, Emily Kngwarreye, to name a couple. The donation of this work will increase the standing of our important, nationally renowned art collection.”

1997 was a big year for Charles Sturt University (CSU). CSU was named The University of the Year for 1997 by the Good Universities Guides, the foundation stone for the first academic building at the Thurgoona site at Albury-Wodonga Campus was laid, the National Wine & Grape Industry Centre at Wagga Wagga Campus commenced work – and Australia’s third, non-commercial, independent national radio news service, National Radio News (NRN) was launched at the Bathurst Campus. From small beginnings, “about 30 stations in the network in the early days – mostly in NSW and Victoria,” according to NRN Manager Peter Hetherington, NRN has grown to providing a news service to “just on 100 stations in every state and territory across Australia”. Mr Hetherington says NRN is looking to soon provide an Internet delivery of service that will include podcasting, full-length interviews and specialist reports.

Will nano-technology save the world or spell the end of civilisation? Professor John Weckert of Charles Sturt University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics says as well as those two groups of people with diametrically opposed view of this new technology, there is also a third viewpoint:  “These voices are trying to get the arguments into perspective so that the technology can be used in ways that are most beneficial.” Professor Weckert is the editor-in-chief of a new journal, NanoEthics. “It was thought that now is a good time to set up an academic journal that can be a forum for serious discussion of these issues,” said Professor Weckert. He says the journal is aimed at academics, philosophers, ethicists, policy makers and “people involved in regulation, many of whom are lawyers. It is very much a cross-disciplinary journal.”

A landmark of the Riverina features in an exhibition of art works by Charles Sturt University (CSU) PHD student Errol Fielder. The Rock hill, an ancient and commanding monolith with a brooding presence, marks the division between the south western slopes and the western plains in southern NSW. It has been a strong influence upon the lore and history of its surrounding district. Charles Sturt during his exploration along the Murrumbidgee River used this prominent hill as a navigational reference point. Mr Field says his exhibition, The Rock Hill; Intimacy, Nostalgia and Alienation is a visual examination of the hill’s natural history, its Wiradjuri lore, its spiritual significance, its psychological influence and it’s effects on both his own and the community's identity.

Nurses working in the Riverina will be able to complete their nursing degrees while working in their communities thanks to a collaborative program between Charles Sturt University (CSU), Greater Southern Area Health Service (GSAHS) and the Riverina Institute of TAFE. Thirty Enrolled Nurses with the GSAHS will upgrade their qualifications to Registered Nurse by enrolling in the CSU Bachelor of Nursing in 2008. To prepare them for their studies via distance education, they are participating in a two day workshop funded by the GSAHS at the University’s Wagga Wagga Campus on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 July. Workshop organiser Heather Latham says this successful partnership between CSU and GSAHS is helping address the critical shortage of qualified nurses in regional Australia and the Riverina. This group will join the 35 GSAHS nurses who commenced their CSU degrees earlier this year.