Abstract:

Now, to the dismay of [Gary Stokley] and other academics, angry parents are introducing themselves much sooner to professors and department heads as they complain about their children's grades.

Ali Zohoori said there's a link to rising college costs - especially at private schools like Bradley University, where he serves as chair of the communications department. Parents that pay Bradley nearly $22,000 per year in tuition, room, board and other fees feel increasingly "entitled to be involved in the academic affairs of their children," Zohoori said.

(Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle)

Full Text:

Sociology professor Gary Stokley recalls when meeting the parents of his students at Louisiana Tech University was limited to a few handshakes at graduation.

Now, to the dismay of Stokley and other academics, angry parents are introducing themselves much sooner to professors and department heads as they complain about their children's grades.

Faculty members also say moms and dads sometimes pressure officials to register students in mandatory courses that are filled to capacity and question the intent of classroom assignments.

"They don't realize that sometimes they just have to let little Johnny stumble and make his own mistakes and learn from them," said Teresa Sherwood, assistant chair of the mathematics department at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. "They just have a hard time letting go."

Case in point: A parent last month asked a Western Washington instructor if her son could reschedule an exam because it conflicted with a planned family vacation, Sherwood said. The request was denied.

Stokley wants parents to feel comfortable contacting him, but said he drew the line recently when a mother wanted to tape record a discussion about her son.

Former high school science teacher Luann Wright said she wouldn't think of complaining to officials at the University of California at San Diego about her son's grades.

But when his writing course placed what she believed was undue emphasis on racial issues, Wright created a Web site - www.noindoctrination.org - that invites parents and students to report instances of political bias in the classroom. "I don't have a problem with controversial topics and I'm not coming at this from a religious or political viewpoint," she said. "I'm just saying if you're going to do this, do it from a balanced view."

The existence of the Web site, though, illustrates the expanding role of parents in higher education. Five years ago, parents rarely contacted Stokley. Today, he said, he hears from an average of four or five parents every term.

Susan Magun-Jackson, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Memphis, said that, from a clinical standpoint, the intervention is about control.

Ali Zohoori said there's a link to rising college costs - especially at private schools like Bradley University, where he serves as chair of the communications department. Parents that pay Bradley nearly $22,000 per year in tuition, room, board and other fees feel increasingly "entitled to be involved in the academic affairs of their children," Zohoori said.

What parents are not entitled to, they soon learn, is disclosure of a child's grade from a professor. Throughout higher education, privacy rules prohibit the faculty from discussing a specific grade with anyone but a student, even if that means withholding information from the people footing the bill.

Credit: Associated Press

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