Parents hover closely over campus

Maddie Eells hit the ground running when she got to UCLA, and ever since, her mom has been running right beside her.

Eells, a second-year Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology student, is the first to admit that her mother is the textbook definition of a “helicopter parent,” a term used to describe the persistent hovering behavior of parents who can’t seem to let their children alone.

But in Eells’ case, she said she doesn’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.

“My parents and I have always seen college as a time when these 18-year-old kids are being thrown in way over their heads. My parents didn’t want that for me,” Eells said.

Eells’ mother buys her textbooks, finds research opportunities, scholarships and clubs on her behalf, makes housing arrangements each year, and compiles several different class schedules for Eells to choose from based on the course requirements for her major.

A clinical lab scientist at Mercy Hospital of Folsom, Eells’ mother, Linda Morgan, was told by her own parents that she wasn’t smart enough to be a doctor and that since she was already married, she had no need for medical school.

Eells’ said that her mother’s upbringing has greatly influenced her own, and that her parents strive to be as invested as possible in her education.

“She’d never allow a door to be closed to me, even if she has to shove her foot in it,” she said.

It is precisely that sentiment that has so many parents refusing to sit on the sidelines while their children navigate the treacherous waters of college life for the first time.

Sixty-two percent of freshmen surveyed in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) reported that they kept in frequent “in-person” contact with their mothers and 86 percent said that they kept in frequent electronic contact.

Thirteen percent of first-year students reported that their parents “frequently intervened” on their behalf to solve problems, and 25% said that their parents “sometimes intervened,” according to the NSSE.

This year URSA has added a feature specifically designed for today’s highly involved parents. Students now have the option to grant access to their grades, degree progress reports, and financial aid documents to a third party, including parents.

Even before URSA allowed a third party to create their own login name and password, Maddie Eells’ parents, and certainly many others like them, had their daughter’s login information handy anytime they wanted to log on to URSA.

The change will mean that, once parents are added to their students’ accounts as a third-party viewer, they will be able to keep track of academic, financial and administrative information from their own computers at home.

Karen Hedges, assistant director of the Office of Residential Life (ORL) is well aquainted with helicopter parenting.

“Anybody who works with students is going to work with their parents in this day and age,” Hedges said.

“Millennials,” those born in the last two decades of the millennium, seek parental approval and support, and their parents want their kids to always have the best, said Hedges.

Though she said she rarely has unpleasant encounters with the parents who contact her, Hedges’ office does field at least two or three calls each month from parents simply looking to check up on their students.

When their child hasn’t answered the phone or responded to an e-mail, concerned parents sometimes call just to make sure everything is okay, Hedges said.

“They are used to constant contact,” she said.

ORL is generally happy to make sure that students are safe, but draws the line when parents solicit help in influencing their children’s decisions, Hedges said.

She added that ORL will never act as a go-between for parents and their students, and instead suggests that parents air their concerns directly with their kids before calling the school.

The NSSE found that, despite the often negative use of the term “helicopter parent,” students who kept in frequent contact with their parents and felt supported by them generally had more satisfaction with their college experience. They also reported higher levels of engagement with their university.

UCLA’s Freshman Survey, a 40-year-old survey administered annually by the Cooperative Higher Education Research Institute, has added similar questions to their survey this year.

In 2006, the survey results included answers from 271,000 first-year students from 400 campuses nationwide. This year’s results are scheduled to be released in January, and John Pryor, director of the Higher Education Research Institute, said that the new questions on the 2007 survey will assess parental involvement in the lives of first-year students.

Vanessa Wagner, a second-year biology student, said that her parents are very actively involved with life at UCLA and still set rules for her about grades, conduct, curfews and church attendance.

“They love me and they want the best for me. They want the best for me even if don’t want it for myself,” Wagner said.

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