“I understood it was an emotional situation that led to some knee-jerk reactions by the parents,” Lancaster says. “I tried to explain to them that while I would answer any and all of their questions individually, it didn’t seem like an appropriate item for an e-mail blast, and I wanted to respect the privacy of the family of the deceased student.”
However, Lancaster and her peers are quick to point out that parent feedback often has brought about positive changes for their children. At Cal Poly, parent calls to campus officials and to the city of San Luis Obispo about unsafe buildings resulted in the city instituting a hotline for students living off campus. And at WVU, Lantz once sent a mass
e-mail to parents listing “how-tos” for the 4,000 students vacating dorm rooms at the end of the school year. Students were consistently unreliable when it came to cleaning their rooms and remembering to turn in their keys, complained housing officials. “Within 24 hours of my sending that e-mail, over 1,000 families had read it, compared to the 100 students who’d read the one that the housing staff had emailed,” Lantz says. “When it was time for students to move out, we had tons of parents here painting and cleaning, because they would have been the ones paying the tab if the rooms were left a mess.”
There’s no sign from parents that their interest in their children’s college careers is waning. Recently, Nickelsen met a family visiting the Cal Poly campus to learn more about the admissions process. Their future student? “Only 11 years old and trying to get a running start,” she says.
And how did she handle that mother’s question about her son’s lack of a love life?
“I told her as gently as possible,” says Nickelsen, “that he needed to widen his circle of friends.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
