Local Charles “Chip” McAuley grew up knowing that he wanted to come to Sonoma State University. Now a graduate with both a B.A and an M.A from SSU, he is a prominent professor in the Communications department.
“It was funny, I was born in New Jersey and I grew up here in Northern California and I always wanted to go to Sonoma State,” said McAuley. “When my father was in college he went to Sonoma State and my mother and I would come up and register him for classes and I guess I was sort of conditioned to go to Sonoma State. It’s really the only place I wanted to go to.”
This communications major graduated with honors and distinction in 2000 and then went into several different entertainment industries after graduation while he figured out what he wanted to do with his life.
“I worked in the film industry and I worked in the journalism industry, which I still work in,” said McAuley. “I worked in the film industry and I was excited to do that but I found that I didn’t really like it. I also did my own film, Captain Blast and Me, which strangely enough professor Beebout, another Communications professor was in. “
In addition to his own film, McAuley had a hand in some of the bigger budget Hollywood movies as well.
“I worked on the Rob Schneider movie ‘The Animal,’” said McAuley. “I was a production assistant and it was the movie that made me decide that I never wanted to work on another Hollywood film. It was a lot of waiting and crowd control and the people weren’t too friendly. I did get to meet Rob Schneider, he’s a nice guy it was just the process that I didn’t really enjoy.”
McAuley also worked for other big names such as Lucas Films THX when it was still a part of Lucas Film. This led to him being hired on to Skywalker Ranch to work in Lucas Licensing where he worked on the comic books and non-fiction books.
“That’s when I realized that I really didn’t like the film industry,” said McAuley. “It was very isolating out on the ranch and I really wanted to be with a lot of people. I was already free lance writing so I left Lucas film and started doing free lancing and was then hired full time as a journalist. I’ve kept freelance writing and doing journalism ever since.”
McAuley returned to Sonoma to get his Masters in English and graduated in 2006. While searching for what he was going to do next he stumbled upon an opportunity that landed him where he is today.
“In 2007, I created a course called ‘Star Trek and American Society’ during a winter intersession,” said McAuley. “Then an opening came up to advise the Sonoma State Star [school newspaper] and I was offered the job. The Star has continued to develop since then and it wins awards every year. Not that we do it for the awards but they’re a wonderful thing. It’s always a pleasure to work with the new journalists and watch them evolve over their time at SSU.”
Currently McAuley spends his time as a features Editor for Popmatters.com and focuses on his teaching. In addition to the Star, McAuley is in charge of the writing sequence and occasionally the Communications 301 course. At the moment he is also an advisor helping Arts and Humanities students figure out their courses for their remaining years at Sonoma State.
“I love being here at Sonoma State because of the students,” said McAuley. “They are always bringing new ideas into the classroom which gives me a lot of energy and that’s what keeps me coming back everyday. Read the Star! Live the Star!”
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Sonoma chapter.