helicopter-parents-college

Helicopter parents find their helipad


A new online portal at University of Tennessee at Martin allows helicopter parents to check their students’ grades, attendance and more.

helicopter-parents-college

To many in higher education, “helicopter parents” can be an annoyance, constantly asking institutions for updates on their adult children’s finances, grades and attendance.

Some university researchers have even asked parents to cut it out, warning them that helicopter parenting can cause anxiety, depression and even ruin a student’s chance at getting a job.

But the University of Tennessee at Martin is hoping that a new online tool can transform those helicopter parents from a burden to a benefit for both students and the university.

“We all need to improve retention rates, but don’t have the resources to go hire more counselors and coaches,” Brandy Cartmell, director of academic records and registrar at UTMartin, said. “We need to utilize the resources we do have at our disposal, and we realized that parents are an untapped resource.”

(Next page: A look inside the new tool)

The new tool is an online portal designed for parents who want to be kept abreast of their child’s day-to-day progress, both in and out of the classroom. It’s similar to the portal already used by students, myUTMartin Portal.

Inside the UTMartinParent Portal, parents can find their student’s schedule, final and midterm grades, attendance alerts, and financial aid information, as well as resources that families can share and discuss.

“My thought is that every student needs someone checking up on them, following up with them,” Cartmell said. “And who cares more about that student than the parent? It gives parents a tool to start a conversation.”

When designing the portal, she said, the university knew it was important to not add any new work to an already overburdened faculty. Any student information included in the portal must already be reported elsewhere to the university.

Cartmell said it’s now just a careful process of streamlining those existing tasks.

“For example, instructors are required to report attendance for aid purposes,” she said. “So we took away that process and replaced it with these attendance alerts for the portal. We’re very aware of the faculty’s time”

It was also important to honor student’s privacy.

While parents of tax dependent students are privy to this sort of information already, students must specifically opt in to the portal through a release form. That way, the students are at least aware of what information their parents are accessing.

Cartmell admits she’s guilty of some helicopter parenting herself.

Recently, she said her son–usually an A or B student–bombed three midterms. After seeing the grades posted in real time, Cartmell was able to quickly intervene and help her student get back on track, an impossible task for a parent who waits until a semester is over for a progress report.

“Helicopter parents are always out there swooping around,” Cartmell said. “They’re always going to want to be involved, but they need direction. We took the helicopter parents and we gave them a landing pad.”

Follow Jake New on Twitter at @eCN_Jake.

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