Charles Sturt University (CSU) is set to host its 33rd annual Vintage Dinner in Wagga Wagga on Friday 12 November. CSU Winemaker, Mr Andrew Drumm, says while the overall quantity of fruit harvested was down due to rain, the fruit is of higher quality, with a lot more hand-harvesting this year. “The harvesting of grapes by hand is a more delicate procedure to mechanical harvesting and therefore leads to a superior product,” Mr Drumm said. Up to 270 guests are expected to attend the Vintage Dinner. Wines from various vintages will be provided including the hand-harvested 2010 Rosé, the award-winning 2007 sparkling wine, and the 2010 Moscato, the first commercial crop off the Muscat vines at CSU in Wagga Wagga. Entertainment will be provided by the Italian-born classical/pop singer Mr Antonio Villano. His performances include The Elder Park Christmas Carols, The Australian Tour Down Under, The Adelaide Carnivale, Italian festivals and charity events. Tickets are on sale for $60 from Ms Karen Jamieson on 02 6933 2221. Pre-dinner drinks will be held from 6.45pm with dinner served in the Convention Centre at CSU in Wagga Wagga from 7pm.

A panel of senior academics will explore the topic University Education in the 21st century: Profession, Praxis or … Purchase??? at a special seminar for university educators at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Monday 8 November. The CSU Education For Practice Institute (EFPI) will host the seminar to be chaired by its Deputy Director, Dr Stephen Loftus. “The panellists will discuss a range of important and related questions for the audience of university educators,” Dr Loftus said. “What is 21st century university education like and what is driving it? From the point of view of the educators, is it a profession or a practice/praxis? Or is it more like a business where the commodity of education is purchased? Has higher education become a matter of survival? What should universities be doing to flourish within the higher education marketplace but stop short of becoming a shop? What are the implications of these debates and trends for Charels Sturt University?” The seminar precedes the CSUED 2010 conference to be held on 10-11 November.

People will fence, plant, prune and plan new and existing gardens as part of a Permablitz to be held in Thurgoona on Saturday 6 November. Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the Albury-Wodonga Environment Centre will host the Permablitz which is a community project to redevelop existing gardens and cleared paddocks around the Inland Living Experience (ILE) House on the University’s Thurgoona site. Activities for participants will include establishing ‘no-dig’ and perennial herb gardens using permaculture principles and an irrigation system. ILE coordinator and chair of CSU in Albury-Wodonga’s Environmental Committee, Dr John Rafferty, said the blitz is an opportunity for the Albury-Wodonga committee to help establish an education centre to demonstrate practical ways of living more sustainably. “The permablitz is really concerned with engaging with the environment, learning new skills and having fun. Set up permaculture gardens is a good thing to do on many levels,” Dr Rafferty said. The Permablitz will start at 10am at ILE House, St John’s Road (though the CSU entrance on Elizabeth Mitchell Drive), Thurgoona.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will hold its annual tertiary learning and teaching conference CSUEd2010, in Bathurst from 9-11 November, with six pre-conference workshops on Tuesday 9 November. The Conference Chair, Associate Professor Som Naidu, the Director of Teaching and Learning Quality Services in the CSU Division of Learning and Teaching Services, said the theme of this year’s conference is ‘Educating for 2020 and beyond’.“The two conference keynote addresses will be delivered by Professor Jeannie Herbert, Foundation Chair of Indigenous Studies at Charles Sturt University, and Professor Ron Barnett, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the University of London in the UK. The pre-conference workshops will allow staff from across the University to actively discuss a range of topics related to learning and teaching at the University including education for practice, blended and flexible learning, and curriculum renewal,” Professor Naidu said.

An Austrian freshwater ecologist is visiting Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) School of Environmental Science and the Institute for Land, Water and Society to see how scientists are studying the survival of the young stages of fish in Australian rivers. Associate Professor Hubert Keckeis, from the University of Vienna in Austria, is working with CSU researcher Dr Paul Humphries on the ways that fish larvae disperse in rivers. His visit follows Dr Humphries’ own work two years ago in the Danube River, which was the basis for a major three-year project for Professor Keckeis, the results of which will be used in plans to restore the Danube River that flows through much of southern Europe. “Dr Humphries is well-known for his ‘larval drift’ work in rivers,” said Professor Keckeis, who is working with Dr Humphries, Dr Kevin Warburton and Honours student Mr Tim Kaminskas on experiments to investigate the effects of water velocity and light on larval drift, and analysing age and growth data of drifting larvae.

A leading international community critical psychologist and Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic, Professor David Fryer, will speak as part of the CSU public lecture series in Bathurst on Wednesday 17 November. Professor Fryer, a lecturer and researcher at the CSU School of Psychology in Bathurst, says his topic, Unemployment from a Community Critical Psychology Standpoint: Misery, Mental Ill-Health and Marienthal, examines the relationship between unemployment, misery, mental health and community life. “Although the first research into this topic commenced in the 1930s, the question has seldom been more internationally relevant, nor answers more needed, than since the recent global financial crisis which has led to mass unemployment, under-employment, and insecure employment in many of the world’s major economies. Social scientists agree that unemployment leads to mental health, social and community problems, not only among those directly affected but also in the wider community. This lecture will look at these problems from a community critical standpoint and discuss their international and local relevance,” Professor Fryer said.

Were you born here or overseas, and did you start or re-start school in Australia between 1965 and 1995? Education researchers at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE) based in Albury-Wodonga want to speak to you. They are recording the memories of people who started or re-started school in this period, and want to interview people face-to-face or by telephone for about one hour. Interviewees are also invited to share their memorabilia and photos with the early childhood researchers at the University, as part of a project titled Narratives of Transition: Starting school in different decades, which is part of research into transition to school by the Murray School of Education. To organise an interview for the project, contact Dr Tuija Turunen on (02) 6051 9419, or send an email ttururnen@csu.edu.au .

With an asteroid named after him, Professor Fred Watson, AM, is a master of the universe whose passion for astronomy will excite those who attend his public lecture at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange on Friday 12 November. Astronomer-in-charge of the Australian Astronomical Observatory at Siding Spring near Coonabarabran, NSW, Professor Watson’s main scientific interest is gathering information on very large numbers of stars and galaxies. He is well-known for his astronomy discussions on ABC Radio, has been a guest speaker at venues ranging from Parliament House and the Australian Museum, to Science in the Pub, and is in demand among science educators. Professor Watson is a frequent guest on ABC TV’s weekly science program, Catalyst, and writes regularly for several publications, including Australian Geographic and the annual Yearbook of Astronomy. To find out more about the universe and the asteroid 5691 Fredwatson, the Central West Branch of the Royal Society of NSW invites the public to attend Professor Watson’s public lecture, An alien like you, at 6pm Friday 12 November at Lecture Theatre 3, CSU in Orange. Tickets are $3 for Royal Society members, $5 for non-members.

Safety-conscious staff at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga will be honoured when the annual Wagga Mutual Credit Union Safety Awareness Awards are presented on Thursday 11 November. Six staff, including a lecturer, a laboratory manager and a security officer, will receive an award during the ceremony from 3.30pm to 5pm in Joyes Hall at CSU in Wagga Wagga. The awards in 2010 have focussed on staff who have used the official hazard reporting system at CSU, or have shown good occupational health and safety practice in offering solutions to potential hazards which range from road safety on campus, lighting and a washing machine with an electrical fault.