DrThompsen.com

So today was the big day at West Chester University. I’ve never seen such excitement on this campus! I thought it would be big, but I never imagined it would be this big. Over 2,200 wildly animated people crowded into Hollinger Field House to watch Chris Matthews interview Barack Obama on MSNBC’s “Hardball [...]

It’s official.  Barack Obama will be coming to West Chester University this Wednesday afternoon. But it’s not for a stump speech or an open discussion.  No, Obama will be on a TV show that is being hosted on campus.  And not everyone can get in; you need to get a ticket if you want to [...]

So this afternoon, Chelsea Clinton visited our campus. I expected there would be a crowd, but didn’t expect this big of a crowd. The Sykes Union television lounge was filled to capacity, and the overflow crowd extended upstairs to the second floor. I had to struggle to get close enough to take [...]

This semester I’m officially on sabbatical leave from my faculty position at West Chester University. I’m supposed to be spending my time working on my sabbatical project, and that’s what I’ve been doing…at least part of the time. But during the first two weeks of this semester, I’ve found myself responding to a [...]

Today was a happy day for faculty in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). After five days of difficult negotiations, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty (APSCUF), our faculty union, has achieved a tentative collective bargaining agreement for the next four years.Our union was ready to call a strike, [...]

[Below is the text of my presentation at this year's RECAP conference.]
For the past three years, I’ve been podcasting my lectures in the introductory course in mass communication I teach at West Chester University. Students have often told me that the lecture podcasts have been a valuable study aid, and have helped make the [...]

Today was the first day of RECAP 2007, the annual educational technology conference at West Chester University. I was the moderator of a student panel this morning where we discussed student use of social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. The students gave us some fascinating insights into the role of online [...]

Today I had the honor of speaking at a special ceremony in remembrance of Megan Bates. A student in one of my classes last semester, Megan tragically died in an automobile accident last December. At today’s ceremony, Megan was posthumously awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from West Chester University. [...]