If you have a child heading off to college, take note of the message in this Associated Press article brought to us by Yahoo!.  Colleges and universities have steadily increased the level of customer service offered to parents in recent years due to popular demand, but it seems the tide is turning.  This piece highlights Colgate University in particular which says it is focusing more on high quality education than keeping parents happy 100% of the time.  Regardless of which college your child is headed off to, it seems that this renewed direction is a trend, so we need to know what to expect....and not expect from our children’s higher education institutions.

Don’t expect an educational institution to put all their best people on a relatively minor plumbing problem or other “disaster” that might otherwise be considered an out-of-classroom lesson.  It seems colleges have had it with finding local dry cleaning facilities for students when a parent calls.  That’s not to say no support will be offered when needed, but according to this article, colleges are starting to expect students to be more functional than in recent years.

So, parents should be very clear with their child’s college about what services will and will not be provided, and what the student should be able to handle.  That way, you can help them find the dry cleaner during a visit rather than scramble through the internet yellow pages and phone books at the last minute.