Parents and students could decide, together with administrators, under what circumstances parents should be notified in case of student infractions of rules on alcohol or illegal drugs, and parents could be involved in collaborative processes for thinking through dorm rules. Even while respecting privacy, colleges can encourage families to function as units of loving people. Involvement of parents in the intellectual life on campus could begin by drawing parents into the academic life cycle. At Connecticut College, an all-college summer reading list invites parents as well as students, faculty, and staff to read three books. On Parents' Weekend, panels of parents, students and faculty address the issues developed in the reading.
Authors come to campus to lecture on their books.
This year the Dean and I held a forum with more than 400 parents and students on alcohol use on campus. A number of colleges are forming parents associations, which give parents additional opportunities to share their wisdom and experience about their careers, sports and volunteer activities, not only with their own children, but with their children's classmates and the faculty as well. A generation ago these suggestions would have been risible, but now they become realistic and exciting possibilities. In a survey by the dean of freshmen this year, over 90 percent of Connecticut College freshmen ranked parents and family members as the people they most admire. Colleges can connect families and current concerns they share.