Popular parent communications approaches
Aside from the typical parent outreach activities--parents weekend, parent orientation, and parents newsletters--there are other ways to communicate with this important constituency. This short sidebar to "A Separate Piece" outlines five other approaches institutions have used successfully.
The University of Minnesota's 2003 national survey of parent programs identified five top activities campuses offer for parents: parent/family weekend, parent orientation, communications/newsletter, fund raising, and a parents council/association. Other campus practitioners list the following among their successful parent communications efforts:
Listservs
Parent relations is another aspect of brand management, says Educational Marketing Group President Bob Brock. "But on many campuses there are several offices independently communicating with parents. The issue of decentralized communications can be enormously damaging to institutions if they are unable to work out solutions to it," he says.
Transition handbooks
"The Babson Parent Transition: Your Child—Our Adult Learner" provides a framework to help parents understand how campus officials view their relationship with students and parents. It also provides parents with an overview of first-year transition issues for students, including the college's approach to student development, academic life, leadership and citizenship on campus, FERPA, health and wellness, personal responsibility and safety, finances, and expectations for the responsible use of technology. The guide also includes key dates for parents, including times of the year that are curricular "peaks and valleys" for the student or opportunities for parents to visit campus such as family weekend.
Parent admissions tours
George Dehne, president of GDA Integrated Services, recommends that campuses conduct separate student and parent admissions tours. Students often feel that parents are intrusive and embarrass them by asking too many questions and speaking on their behalf. "Parents ask all the questions that are important to them, but students often just want to know whether or not they'll fit in," he says. Separate tours can give both groups a more comfortable forum.
Parent-to-parent outreach
Reed College administrators send parents of all admitted students a brochure, "Parent to Parent," listing telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of current Reed parents who have volunteered to serve as resources. Reed also has a print and online admissions recruitment brochure called "Especially for Parents."
Student records access
It can come as a big surprise to parents paying tuition bills that they don't have access to their children's records. UMN's OneStop program gives students access to their own records, which they can then print and give to their parents. "When we tell parents how easy it is for their student to give them records," Savage says, "it puts the conversation back where it belongs—between parent and student." The OneStop site also has a section that parents can log onto—with the student's approval—and check billing online.
This article accompanied "A Separate Piece" in the November/December 2004 CURRENTS.