In the age of constant communication buzzing in the ears of today’s college students, schools around America are pumping up their efforts to reign in a growing pest: helicopter parents.
According to a recent study, more colleges than ever are attempting to teach anxious mothers and fathers -- who earn the title of helicopter parents because of their hovering -- to let go by launching or expanding orientation special orientations just for them. They hold parents-only workshops on health insurance, dorm life, financial aid, academics, alcohol abuse and policing.
Last year, 97 percent of colleges and universities surveyed in U.S. and Canada held orientations for parents of incoming students. According to the study, which was performed by the University of Minnesota's National Survey of College and University Parent Programs, the figure is up from 61 percent in 2003.
Educators tell horror stories of parents who refuse to leave campus at the appropriate time, impersonate their children in telephone calls seeking information from campus offices or who protest privacy laws, which keep grades confidential unless students allow parental access.
Elizabeth Warren of Fremont said she appreciated advice about what one speaker described as "the difference between mothering and smothering, between fathering and bothering."
Orientation officials say that they try to give parents information to help them refer their children to the right campus resources.
Some schools are starting parent volunteer organizations and hiring staff to serve as full-time parent liaisons, sometimes to handle complaints, sometimes with an eye to fundraising. If their kids have a great experience and find jobs after graduation, the parents are more likely to contribute to the school.
Los Angeles Times