To the Parents of…
Photo by Centenary Collegeboard
I am as independent as a twenty-one-year-old can be. Never mind the fact that, at my age, my grandmother had been happily married for over three years and was about to pop with her second kid (Hi, Mom!) or that I technically still live in my mother’s house (that’s down to my anti-social tendencies and a lack of desire to wear flipflops in the shower). The point is that I make my own money (a fair amount for a full-time undergraduate). I buy my necessities: gas, makeup, Starbucks, and schoolbooks. I make my own appointments (took a bit to get there, but I’ve largely mastered the art of a phone call). I even have my own credit score and accompanying debtors. My parents have not had to pay a single dime for my education since the Spring of 2019.
While I may not be a fully-fledged adult—Mom does still pay my cellphone bill, half of the car note, and the rent for the house I refuse to leave—I’ve earned the respect and independence my mother has given me.
This makes us both wonder when a letter comes in the mail addressed to “The Parents of Callie Fedd,” from Centenary College of Louisiana.
Now, as a high school student with a close relationship to the parish truancy office, a letter addressed to my parents sitting in the mailbox is a familiar sight. As a senior in college who makes the Dean’s List every semester, those letters and emails are a bit baffling to both me and my mother. The most recent iteration of this arrived in my mother’s inbox on February 21, 2022, at 12:39 PM from provost@centenary.edu. It read:
Subject: Midterm Grades
February 21, 2022
Dear Centenary Parents and Guardians,
Midterm grades will be posted for students next week. While these grades are not part of your student’s permanent academic record, they do indicate academic performance at this midpoint in the term.
Midterm grades are posted in BannerWeb. Please check with your student to ensure they log in to BannerWeb to check their grades. Faculty members are required to post deficient grades of D or F, but most faculty members post all grades. Each student has access to BannerWeb to view these grades and other information.
The email goes on to encourage the parents of students that are doing well to “congratulate them” and to provide a list of academic support resources that are available at Centenary for those whose children may be struggling. And, immediately below, to the Centenary Parents and Guardians:
If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to one of the following individuals:
Dr. Edward Ragan, Student Support Counselor, eragan@centenary.edu. 318-869-5142
Dr. Jeanne Hamming, Associate Dean of the College, jhamming@centenary.edu. 318-869-5240
In addition, I welcome your call or email for assistance.
I have this memory that stands out amidst the blur of sleep deprivation that was my first week of college in the Fall of 2018: my mother, somewhat jokingly, recounting the happenings of the lectures that parents underwent during orientation. “It is amazing how many times they can reiterate the fact that you’re all grown now and that they’re not allowed to give us any information about your life because of the blood oath that is FERPA law.” Our personal situation is that we’re both fairly laid-back; I don’t care if my mother knows my grades, and my mother doesn’t care to know them. For us, FERPA is just a funny little acronym, but for other students, it can literally be a lifesaver.
FERPA—stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act—is a federal law meant to give parents the right to their children's academic records, so long as they remain in K-12, under the age of 18, and legally dependent on the parent(s). In college or post-secondary education, the law is meant to protect the privacy of the student and keep records confidential between the individual and the institution. Parents aren’t privy to grades, test scores, or financial information—even if they still pay the tuition bill. Now, while the email/letters addressed to my parents/guardians fail to explicitly mention my courses and grades, the notification is problematic in and of itself.
Achieving an education is the responsibility of the individual student, as Centenary likes to helpfully remind our parents. In that statement, there's a level of accountability established for us as both student and child. A standard set by Centenary that they then undermine with the parental notification of posted midterm grades.
I am lucky for the independence that my mother grants me. In the hypothetical scenario that I may not be doing well in Spanish (or French, or College Algebra, or Bio Chem.) one semester and receive a failing midterm grade, my mother would simply shrug and say, “That sounds like a you problem; get a tutor.” Meanwhile, another student in that situation may face a different reaction from the people at home: i.e., the revoking of financial freedom, emotional manipulation, or even the threat of mental/physical abuse.
For all of my independence, there are still some aspects of my life in which I am dependent on my mother. I acknowledge and respect that. My choice to live off-campus throughout undergrad makes me dependent on her for housing. My lack of stable income/benefits makes me dependent on her for health and dental insurance. My inability to successfully boil water determines that I am dependent on her (but mostly my sister and Nana—sorry Mom!) for a home-cooked meal. I am not, however, dependent on her for my education here at Centenary. I am fortunate enough to have the majority of my tuition covered by scholarships, and the rest is funded through student loans taken out in my name. At the same time, I realize that there are some parents that have a financial stake in their child’s future at Centenary and may have a right to updates on their performance.
Ultimately, while the notifications to parents concerning midterms and finals fail to explicitly violate FERPA, I believe that it is a subtle workaround that undermines the student performance standards. While the argument can be made that students are able to opt-out of the parent notifications through Bannerweb (hint, hint everyone!), the feature itself presents a glaring lack of consideration on the part of the Centenary administration.
