Parents and college orientation

[aephi alum]

Back in the day, orientation was strictly for students, with the exception of Freshman Parents' Weekend. New freshmen spent their first week and a half going through rush (yup, rush ), choosing their dorms, meeting with their advisors, registering for classes, finding out about various activities on campus, and generally meeting new people. Following this was a special Freshman Parents' Weekend with various activities for parents; some fraternities and sororities held parents' brunches and the like. (Parents of freshmen were also invited to the regular Parents' Weekend, which took place a few weeks later.)

The message was clear. Drop your kid off, or stick your kid on a plane, and leave him/her alone to acclimate - and if you want, come and visit in 10 days' time. Parents couldn't even contact their children except in an emergency, but students could call their parents if they wanted to (this was in the days before everyone had cell phones and email accounts). Even the worst helicopter parents were all but forced to cut the apron strings.

[KSUViolet06]

Kent State has Week Of Welcome which runs from the day the freshmen move in to the day before classes start (Saturday-Sunday). It basically involves a lot of seminars, tours, and meetings with your orientation instructor (we have a freshman orientation CLASS for first semester freshmen). There are special days set aside during spring semester for newly accepted freshmen to come up and do placement/scheduling, so they don't usually schedule during Week of Welcome.

The first day of the Week, students move in and get settled, and I believe parents are welcome that day to help them get settled in. The rest of the week is geared toward students, so the parents are supposed to get them settled in, and LEAVE.

That doesn't always happen nowadays. When I was a freshman, my parents came, helped me set up my room, and left. From what I hear, parents have now started getting rooms at the area motels/hotels and staying in the area for the whole week!

[VandalSquirrel]

U Idaho has Parent orientation, and which session they attend depends on their student's living choice. There is one for sororities, one for fraternities, and one for residence hall and off campus living.

The parents even have their own section on the www.uidaho.edu homepage, which I and my parents found truly bizarre when I became a Vandal. They couldn't believe the personal phone calls and welcome letters, or the continued invitations to campus for Dad's and Mom's weekends. The Parents' Association is very active though, which has been good for certain extras not in the approved state wide budge (the now defunct VandalTaxi).