Helicopter Parents Summary

“Helicopter Parents” Summary

In the article, “Handling ‘Helicopter Parents’,” by Lydia Lum a Houston based freelance writer, focuses on the rising amount of parents who must have direct contact with their student in college. Dr. Gwendolyn Dungy, Executive Director at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, discusses the differences in today’s parents, and the how colleges are responding with Parent Coordinators, who answer any questions parents may have and organize campus events for parents. The article firstly explains, in the past students were dropped off by their parents at college, and left until the end of the semester. Today, however, parents are more controlling of their kids, and cling heavily to their
child’s lives even through college. These parents not only have direct contact with their kids, but also with the institution itself, and they expect a thorough answer immediately to any and all questions they may have. Handling parents comes down to the Parent Coordinators; these coordinators help answer questions about tuition, financial aid, and how to help their child succeed. In addition, these coordinators can now be found at 7 out of 10 colleges in the United States, in some cases receiving 3,000 calls annually. Dr. Dungy explains, “Eventually, every college will figure out a way to do this,”(pg. 2-3) she even predicts that these programs will flood into community colleges. Secondly, not only do Parent Coordinators help parents over the phone, but also organize Parent Weekends.
Syracuse University has even begun to ask minority families why they haven’t tried contacting their parent office. The answer was that parents were contacting the wrong departments, which implemented a “One stop shop experience,”(pg.4) and due too the low-income of many of the student’s parents, Syracuse made their Parent Weekend free of charge. Including organizing events, Parent Coordinators also have to help mediate different problems between students and parents, for example: grades. “Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, grades cannot be distributed to a third party without the consent of the student,”(Pg.3) so that being said, parents complain to Parent Coordinators with not being able to get their child’s grades. “Parent Coordinators can only suggest asking their child to see the grades, which “are resulting in parent coordinators spending much of their time "coaching parent constituents"…”.(Pg.3) Furthermore, in the case of a student who had disappeared, but was soon found had committed suicide, parents became extremely perturbed when they were not told directly via email or newsletter. The Coordinators quickly explained for the lack of a “email blast”, which was to, “…respect the privacy of the family of the deceased student.”
(pg.3) The article progresses to state some positives of ‘helicopter Parents’ and the Parent Coordinators. The parents would inform the college, Cal Poly, about unsafe buildings on and off campus. This has initiated a newsletter that is sent to 4,000 people about university issues. Furthermore, when it came time for the end of semester, parents could be seen cleaning, painting, and repairing dorms. Due to the fact if the dorms were damaged, the parents were paying for it. In conclusion, Parent coordinators have become a big part of the college experience. Their primary jobs to answer questions from parents and as we progress through the next few generations, their presence on campuses across the nation will become an integral part of the students, and parents college lives.

Works Cited:
Lum, Lydia. “Handling ‘Helicopter Parents’.” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education 16 Nov.
2006: 40-42. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Oct. 2012.