- Matthew Mone and his mom, Jeanne Horrigan
Livelihood: Making new members of the UMass Amherst family feel at home. Through
spring sessions for admitted students, summer orientations, and Parent
Services,
Horrigan and her staff offer essential information and assistance on topics from
parking and meal plans to UCards and transportation.
Something New: Parent Services was introduced in 2004. Campus programs for parents
are increasing nationally, according to Horrigan: “Parents these days are accustomed
to being involved and they’re not going to stop” when their children go to college.
She believes that ongoing parental engagement is “reflective of what our society
has become. From the get-go, parents nowadays want to be more involved. Many
families now have two working parents, and they want to spend what free time
they have with their children. Their children are an integral part of their lives.”
Answer That: Parent Services receives about 1,500 e-mails and 600 calls a year.
“Some questions are simple; others can tie up several people for hours,” says
Horrigan. Queries about housing and academics head the list. Parent Services
also reaches out via regular e-mails. “We let parents know when it’s time to
pre-register for courses, for instance. The e-mail contents can be good conversation
openers; out-of-state parents find them especially helpful.”
The Personal Touch: “When people call, they’ll always get a live body, not an
automated system,” says Horrigan. “You know when you get one of those menus,
and you listen to the choices, and none of them is the one you need? Here they’ll
get a friendly person on the other end who can give them an answer or connect
them with someone who can.”
The Parent Trap: After their offspring head out the door, some parents wonder,
“Now what?” Horrigan has good advice for empty-nesters: “I like to ask them,
‘Is there something you have always wanted to do, but you haven’t had the time?’
Usually there is. Now they can try something new.”
Growing Up: Horrigan always refers to “students,” not “children.” She says, “That’s
what we’re accustomed to calling them in the office, but it also says a bit more
about who they are.” While she and her staff help parents feel connected, they
also encourage them to treat their children as young adults moving toward independence.
“We help parents to help their students be successful,” says Horrigan. That may
mean “the student, not the parent, has to be the one to talk to a professor.”
Phone Home: Independence doesn’t equal disappearance. Surveys, Horrigan notes,
reveal that “the vast majority of students are in daily contact with their families.”
That’s probably far more than the parents were in touch with their parents, and
it’s partly because with cell phones, e-mail, and IMing, it’s so much easier
to do.
Walking the Walk: With her elder child now in college, says Horrigan, “I have
newfound credibility with parents—I’m one of them, in the club.”
