The significant and historic role that the Wagga Wagga Teachers’ College played in the development of Charles Sturt University (CSU) will be honoured with a special naming ceremony in the city on Wednesday 22 September. A new student residential block at CSU will be named in honour of the College and the ongoing role played by the Wagga Wagga Teachers’ Alumni Association through the Charles Sturt Foundation. The student residence will be named ‘The WATAL’,  an acronym for Wagga Alumni Teachers’ Association Lodge, by the University’s Chancellor, Mr Lawrie Willett, AO, at a ceremony from 2.30pm at building 381, near car park 19,  CSU in Wagga Wagga. Ten representatives of the Wagga Wagga Teachers’ Alumni Association will be joined by members of the University’s governing body, the CSU Council. The Wagga Wagga Teachers’ College educated men and women from 1947 to 1972 when it was replaced by the Riverina College of Advanced Education.

An export alliance between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and NSW based Linden Valley Cheese will see CSU produced cheese sold in stores across the United States under the newly created Bidgee Cheese label. Five varieties of uniquely Australian flavoured cheeses - Forest Berry, Lemon Myrtle, Bush Tomato, Tasmanian Pepper Berry and Mint Bush - have been developed at the cheese factory on CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus. An initial shipment of 1.6 tonnes of Bidgee Cheese has been dispatched to California. CSU cheese maker Barry Lillywhite said, “It is great to have developed an alliance with this NSW based food exporter and the export deal offers an opportunity to have CSU produced Bidgee Cheese internationally recognised as a unique style of cheese”. Linden Valley Cheese spokesman Ian Lindsay said the export deal is, “Pioneering Australian cheese into mainstream US supermarkets and boutique food outlets and represents a significant export opportunity”. CSU cheeses in these flavours have already won a number of national awards.

The country's top economic reform agency has called for the introduction of carbon taxes as a way to cut greenhouse emissions. The Productivity Commission, the Australian Government's principal review and advisory body on microeconomic policy and regulation, last week submitted the proposal to the Prime Minister's task force on emissions trading. Dr Roderick Duncan, lecturer in economics at Charles Sturt University (CSU), says if we are serious about cutting emissions, a carbon tax is inevitable. “But to reflect the true cost of our energy, we are going to have to drastically increase the price of petrol and electricity. People say they are very concerned about global warming, but when I tell them we could triple the price of energy, then they become a lot less enthusiastic.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will host a three day “Coach-the-Coach Conference” at its Bathurst Campus from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 April 2007. According to Dr Stephen Bird, a lecturer with CSU’s School of Human Movement Studies, the conference is booked out and participants will be travelling from around Australia and overseas. “Several lecturers from CSU will be presenting a number of sessions dealing with topics like training techniques, conditioning, and sports psychology and there will also be presentations from some of Australia’s leading Olympic and Commonwealth Games coaches,” Dr Bird said. The conference is being jointly organized by the Western Region Academy of Sport (WRAS) in Bathurst and its western NSW counterpart the Far Western Academy of Sport (FWAS), and is supported by the School of Human Movement Studies.

The first university to introduce tertiary training for ambulance clinicians in 1994, Charles Sturt University (CSU) has now become the first to enter into a national accreditation process through the Council of Ambulance Authorities (CAA). Because most States and Territories are moving toward university based education for paramedics, the CAA, the peak body representing the ambulance authorities in Australasia, recently began an accreditation process, “to standardise the qualifications throughout Australia, as there are now eleven providers of paramedic education in Australia,” according to Peter O'Meara, Associate Professor in CSU’s School of Biomedical Sciences. Accreditation brings ambulance clinicians into line with similar professions such as nurses, and “will allow our graduates to move around the country freely. In terms of credibility and portability it is really important,” Professor O’Meara said.

Dr Rob Duffield, lecturer in the School of Human Movement at Charles Sturt University (CSU) is a very lucky man. He just happens to be in Barbados during the 2007 International Cricket Council World Cup, and yes, he will be watching cricket. “I have tickets to see two Super 8 round games,” he explains, “the winner of group A (hopefully Australia) v winner of group D (hopefully West Indies) and 2nd in group C v 2nd in group B.” But he also there for business , attending the World Science and Medicine in Cricket Conference, which is being held in the Caribbean nation during the world’s premier one-day cricket competition. Dr Duffield says he is “excited” and “keen to see what is being done in the physiology of cricket as there is limited published work – and keen to see Australia on the pitch!”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) reinforced its place as the leading agricultural university in Australia when 10 students from CSU won the University Teams Award in the second Australian University Crops competition recently held in Temora, NSW. Guided by Dr Sergio Moroni and PhD student Mr Jeff McCormick from the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences in Wagga Wagga, competitors were tested on crop seed identification, business strategy, weed identification and soil analysis. Five CSU students were placed in the top 10 of 41 competitors from six universities. The top placed CSU student was Mr Andrew Gillet, who was second, while Mr Dwayne Schubert was fifth, Mr James Kanaley (sixth), Mr Victor Clifton (seventh), and Mr James Whitley (ninth).

Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic Professor Cilla Kinross, the coordinator of Biodiversity Day, a free community event on Sunday 17 October, says, “Our role as educators plays a big part in why Charles Sturt University gets involved in community events like a Biodiversity Day”. Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, or on an entire planet, and 2010 was declared the International Year of Biodiversity. The Biodiversity Day will focus on the importance of biodiversity through a program of talks relating to biodiversity of the Central West, as well as fun events for the whole family. In the International Year of Biodiversity, CSU is conscious of its involvement in research and education within the local community and further afield to ensure more is understood about biodiversity. “The Biodiversity Day aims to give the general public a better understanding of our flora and fauna and its natural habitat.There will be events for the whole family throughout the day and prizes to be won,” Dr Kinross said. The Orange Biodiversity Day will take place at the Orange Botanic Gardens on Sunday 17 October. For bookings, timetable and further information, please contact Professor Cilla Kinross on ckinross@csu.edu.au  or phone 6365 7651.

For those with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background who are interested in attending university, Charles Sturt University (CSU) has launched a new program which will make the university experience more attainable. CSU’s Indigenous Student Services has introduced a new skills assessment program called Darrambal. “Darrambal means ’footmarks’ or ’roadway’ and is used here to represent the lifelong journey of learning we all travel,” explains CSU’s Indigenous Student Services manager, Mr Ray Eldridge. “The program assesses each person’s skills, abilities and potential to succeed in their preferred course of study. Students who successfully the complete Darrambal program may be offered a place at Charles Sturt University to study their chosen course.” Any person who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander may attend. “This is the perfect program for anyone who would like to study at university but are not sure if they satisfy the usual entry requirements.”