Students who think administrators are not hearing their complaints sometimes fall back on what they see as a trump card - their parents. But are administrators really more willing to respond to the people who pay the bills?
Robert Shaw, executive associate dean of the college, said when parents call him he tries not to let them bypass their student. "I try to put the student in the center of the conversation," he said.
Shaw, who also chairs the Committee on Academic Standing, said parents can be allies in sending messages to students, but he has to "insist the student be part of that conversation."
David Greene, vice president for campus life and student services, said parents are "extremely important to us. ... At Brown we actually invite parents into conversations." But parents calling with some concerns might not get the information they are looking for - something their children might appreciate.
"Some things we just can't tell parents (due to) privacy issues," Greene said.
Greene said he speaks to parents "several times a week," usually about "individual issues" concerning their son or daughter. As the lottery nears, Greene said it is "not that unusual for parents to call (him) with housing concerns," but Mom and Dad also frequently call about "larger issues," particularly "health and safety." He also said there is a larger-than-usual influx of communication from parents after "big news stories" concerning Brown. He did not specify whether that applied to Fox News items alone.
Shaw said parents call him about "all kinds of things," but he hears most frequently from parents of seniors who are worried their students might not graduate and parents of first-years who are afraid their students are having difficulty "negotiating the system."
Though he receives such phone calls about "once a day" on average, Shaw dismissed the notion that he is inundated with parents' concerns. Considering the number of undergraduates at Brown, the "constant" stream of communication actually represents a "very small percentage" of parents, he said.
Marisa Quinn, assistant to the president, said the Office of the President only gets "occasional letters, e-mails and phone calls." She said that "happy, glowing letters" tend to come after events like Parents' Weekend, when parents are inspired to tell her office how much their students are enjoying Brown. At other times of the year, the president's office gets its fair share of complaints from parents concerned about "financial aid issues, housing issues (and) billing questions," most of which they refer to other offices, Quinn said.
The president's office receives more communication from students than parents, she said, adding that a significant number of students hosting events invite the president or ask for funding. The office also receives "a lot of (general) student inquiries," Quinn said. Students "occasionally" call her with complaints, she said, but more frequently they go directly to the relevant office.
Do parents get angry? "Of course," Greene said. But it's often for a "legitimate reason," he said, usually because they don't think they or their students have been treated well. In these cases Greene said he tries to "address the underlying concern."
Administrators seem to be receptive to communication from parents but don't consciously give it more weight than feedback from students. "In general my philosophy in dealing with both students and parents is that it is our responsibility to be very responsive," Greene said.
