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© 2011 National Academic Advising Association

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NACADA Summer Institute 2011 Jo Anne Huber University of Texas Austin Terry Musser Penn State University

       Your perspectives Overview of millennial students Characteristics of today’s parents College Parents of America Survey Rational for working with parents Parent Do’s and Do Not’s Resources for working with parents

 Student preferences  Parent desires  Higher Education Administrators  FERPA/Legal issues  Right thing to do

 “No escape from ‘helicopter parents.’” Albany Times Union  “Hovering parents need to step back at college time.” CNNhealth.com

 “How to ground a helicopter parent.” Donna Krache, CNN  “Parents, quit the hovering.” Debra Bruno, USA Today

 “Putting Parents in Their Place: Outside Class.” Valerie Strauss, WASHINGTON POST  “’Helicopter’ parents hover when kids job hunt.” Stephanie Armour, USA Today  “Back Off: Gen Y’s helicopter parents are a good thing” Rebecca Thorman (modite.com/blog)  “Do ‘Helicopter Moms’ do more harm than good?” ABC News  “ Helicopter Parents Reconsidered ” (CollegeBoard)

Special Sheltered Confident Team-oriented Conventional Pressured Achieving Technology saavy Multi-taskers Impatient Skeptical Blunt and expressive Image driven The “me” generation

Advice for Academic Advisors:  Know how to cut through red tape  Explain academic protocol (compare to health care)  Emphasize existing processes and appeals, especially for grade grievances

Advice for Academic Advisors:  Identify “hot button” issues  Colleges have considerable discretion concerning FERPA and how it is interpreted/applied

Give parents information on when to intervene:  Language is important: student vs. child; professor or faculty vs. teacher; college vs. school; young adult vs. kid  E-mail “bursts” before important deadlines, events  Focus intervention efforts on personal issues with students

Communicate with parents:  Newsletters  Blogs  Website ‘Strictly for Parents’  More communication is usually better

Manage situation:  Identify campus expert on parents  Housing (RA’s)  May not be the Vice President for Students  Look for common problems  Review best practices/share across campus

Stop problems before they happen:  Letters/e-mails  Newsletters at least twice in academic year to parents/families  Identify problem processes, offices, staff  Continual training in dealing with parents  Solve policy and process issues that cause problems

Finances top the list of college parent worries  Publish accurate and complete financial information  Create parent information for financial aid offices Source: College Parents of America (College Parent Experience survey)

Conversation  7.9% talk more than once a day  22.8% talk daily  41.8% talk two or three times per week  22.4% talk weekly  Nearly all are cell phones or e-mails  8/10 parents initiate conversation 50% or more of the time College Parents of America -- 1,722 college parent responses

 “Providing opportunities for parents to participate in the college experience can pay huge dividends in terms of increased student success, institutional financial support, and enhanced public relations.” (Keppler et al., 2005)  Consequences of not working with parents

 Parent and family activities  Regular Communication  Provide current Information  Be responsive  Provide specifics at Parent Orientation

 Do not dismiss them after they leave their students  Do not indicate you care the way that they care  Do not pretend you know their son/daughter better than they do  Try not to pass them off to another office  Never be flip or curt with them!

 NACADA FAMILY GUIDE  NACADA Clearinghouse  Current bibliography

 Reactions  Ideas  Your success stories  Your challenges