By From the Editors
The millennial generation, those born between the late 70s and early 90s, are no strangers to obsessed parents. “Baby on Board” bumper stickers, forced clarinet and ballet lessons, quarterly teacher conferences – students attending the University grew up around protective parents whose obsessions continue after high school graduation.
Gone are the days when freshman end summer waving goodbye to parents and traveling to school alone. Now mom and dad come, maybe grandma too. They help set up the dorm room, wait on registration lines, demand changes and buy last minute needs from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
Come to campus during freshman move-in and parents outnumber the students.
The problem is some stick around, like helicopters, hovering-that is the new label for this breed: “helicopter-parents.” They’ll leave the school eventually, perhaps after taking pictures of their child’s new room-from every angle-but that is not the end of them. These were the parents who carried five-ring binders and a bag of folders when college-shopping. They asked every question during open house, and their hundred thousand plus dollar investment maybe out of the house, but not out of their grip.
Many schools are finding new ways to accommodate these ever-questioning guardians. The University is opening a new parent’s office and will provide summer seminars for parents only as well. The administration says the office will “provide a central location for their particular questions and concerns.”
This is smart move by the University. A central office will help keep these parents from flooding phone lines of other departments. Financial aid questions, registration questions, grade questions, housing questions – each require a different call and maybe a wait. Now a few individuals can act as a buffer, so workers can spend their time off the phone and attending business.
In the end, though, these parents must learn the tuition they pay is for their child’s education, not their ease. The parent’s office is a good idea, but the money used to increase communication with parent could also be used to help students contact with the school. That is the thinking behind the administration at Colgate University.
According to a CNN report, parents got a new message during orientation at the school. Customer service for them is not a top priority at all, rather education for the students and the resources available to them – that is Colgate’s top priority.
And this is at a school with $40,000 tuition.
In the CNN report a dean from Colgate said, “We noticed what everybody else noticed. We have a generation of parents that are heavily involved in their students lives and it causes all sorts of problems.”
In the end, it is the students at the University who need to stop accepting their parents as a crutch. When difficulty arises it is easy to grab the cell-phone, cry to mom or dad and watch as life fixes itself. Actions like this never allow students to grow in their own responsibilities and learn to deal with real-life situations.
That is what makes college different than high school. In high school the goal is to teach students how to learn, but in college the goal should be for students to learn how to live. The University has to deal with these hovering parents, and the new office is a smart idea, but it cannot end there. The ultimate focus must be the creation of intelligent students, who not only think for themselves, but can live for themselves.