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Best Practices For Managing Parent Concerns Essay

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In recent years, it is now customary for professionals who work in higher education to have interesting stories about their interactions with parents. In Lynette S. Merriman’s book, Best Practices for Managing Parent Concerns: A Mixed Methods Study of Student Affairs Practice at Doctoral Research Institutions, she uses the 2006 national survey of student affairs professionals to discover that 93% of respondents recorded that their interactions with parents had increased in the most recent five years of research (105; ch. 7). Not only have higher education professionals seen increased parental interactions with administrators, but also with students. In 2007, the organization College Parents of America surveyed parents and found that 34% of respondents reported that they communicated with their children either daily, or more than once a day (“National Parent Survey”). Increased parental involvement is driving colleges and universities to examine the advantages and disadvantages of having parents as a more significant influence on collegiate processes. The frequency and medium of communication between parents, students, and administrators is a specific interest. Much of the increased involvement originates from the prevalence of technology such as cell phones and e-mail, parents are able to talk to their students daily, receiving immediate updates happenings with classes, extra-curricular activities, friends, and roommates. In College Parents of America’s survey, 90% of

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