Features
College students navigate parental expectations after moving out.
Brielle Atwell, Student Reporter
October 14, 2025
College students everywhere often face a bit of tension with their parents after moving out. This can stem from the fact that college students are taking on a lot more responsibility and are becoming more individuals than dependents. This shift in lifestyle affects the parents as well. During their children’s lifetime, parents enjoyed and/or felt the need to guide and take care of them. The sudden change often creates a high amount of tension in the child-parent dynamic.
Many parents have likely spent their entire child’s life preparing them for the outside world and the eventuality of “leaving the nest”. Parents may initially be expecting to be liberated from the many responsibilities that come with raising children and then become ambushed with feelings of emptiness and unhappiness after their children leave. However, many parents still develop what is called “Empty Nest Syndrome.” An article by Liz Kramer and Jill Ginsburg looks at this dynamic in more detail.
“[Empty Nest Syndrome is] Feelings of psychological emptiness and unhappiness on the part of parents whose children have moved out of the house,” Kramer and Ginsburg said. “For some parents, these feelings conflict with expectations of being liberated from the responsibility of putting their children's concerns and activities ahead of their own.”
Parents may not know how to deal with these new and unexpected feelings, and it may affect the restructuring of their relationships with their children.
When interviewing several students at Allen Community College, they reported a different viewpoint.
“My parents always find something to argue about when we call,” one student said.
The student’s perception of parents always finding something to argue about may stem from the parents’ new emotions that develop once their child has moved out. Students may be getting the backlash simply because their parents cannot express how they’re feeling to their children.
When answering the question "Do your parents think you contact them enough?", another student replied, “No, they want me to talk to them more about my schedule and how I’m doing.”
The student seems to perceive their parents as less than thrilled to talk to them on the phone. Yet, this may be because the student is not providing the parent with detailed enough responses on what they have been up to.
As Kramer and Ginsburg point out, this need to be involved heavily in their child's education, free time, and occupation to ensure they’re heading towards success is known as “Helicopter Parenting.” Though, the “hovering” of helicopter parents makes the transition even more difficult from the student’s point of view. From a student’s perspective, they may have told their parents the most interesting part of their day already or are tired of repeating their same schedule all the time, which then likely causes students to associate phone calls home with disinterest or dread. Therefore, students may start avoiding calls with their parents to maintain their independence.
It’s not likely that parents want to bore or smother their children, but many are still figuring out how the dynamic should work between them and their child/student, now that they’ve moved out. Families should expect some conflicts and be willing to have conversations, setting boundaries, as needed, for the benefit of both the students and the parents.
With time, both sides can redefine their relationship in a way that respects independence while also maintaining connection. Patience and willingness to grow will help families overcome these and many more challenges.
Image generated in Chat GPT
Allen looks ahead: How students and instructors are preparing for the AI-driven classroom
Marisa Sawyer, Online Student Reporter
October 7th, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) integration is no longer a distant concept. It is here, and it’s shaping how students learn, how instructors teach, and how employees work. Because of this, colleges across the country are debating whether to ban AI tools like ChatGPT or embrace them as part of the learning process. At Allen Community College, the newly formed AI Task Force is choosing the latter approach, working to prepare both students and staff to use AI responsibly and effectively.
Professor Terri Fahnestock is a member of Allen’s AI Task Force. The group’s goal is to take a “college-wide approach” to A.I. that includes all departments, not just the classroom. The task force is currently researching what other community colleges have already established while developing clear, consistent policies and training opportunities for both faculty and students.
“Our goal is to ensure that all departments use AI responsibly and in ways that align with ethical guidelines and industry standards,” Fahnestock explained.
According to Fahnestock, one of the biggest challenges she’s seen as an instructor is students relying too heavily on AI. This over-reliance comes with a cost.
“AI can short-circuit the development of critical thinking skills,” she explained. “It can produce polished looking results, but if students rely on it too much, they miss the opportunity to actually learn.”
Fahnestock also cautioned that AI “lies.” This means the AI often fabricates information or mixes in inaccuracies, which can lead students astray if they don’t take time to verify sources.
Still, Fahnestock sees plenty of opportunity when AI is used responsibly.
“When students take AI-generated ideas and then do the deeper work of research, evaluation, and synthesis, they can use technology to enhance, not replace their learning,” she said.
Tools like ChatGPT can help students brainstorm essay topics, organize thoughts, and explore various counterarguments they may not have considered otherwise.
Fahnestock’s advice to students is simple but powerful:
“Do not let it think for you. Think of AI as your helpful brain-dump and organization space but never allow it to become your final product. Give yourself the chance to learn, grow, and maintain your academic integrity—as well as your personal and mental health.”
In the end, the message is clear: AI isn’t going anywhere. According to Gallup, nearly half of U.S. employers now use AI in their jobs—a number that has doubled in just two years. That makes AI literacy a new essential skill, one that deserves a place alongside the core curriculum. With the right balance of curiosity, ethics, and education, Allen Community College hopes to ensure students are ready not just to use AI, but to use it wisely.
College protests: Are they worth potential consequences?
Antonio Smith, Online Student Reporter
September 18th, 2025
Student protests have been a common part of college campuses in the United States for centuries. Students have consistently challenged the political systems while raising awareness for important causes that need attention, letting people know why they should care. They have always been a historic tradition of activism that could shape college education as well. But ever since October 7th, 2023, when Hamas led a coordinated attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, not just by air, land, and sea, School campuses have seen a rise of not only violence and hate but unprecedented consequences for anyone involved in protest.
The future stakes are higher now since October 7th when it comes to protesting on college campuses. For many, it’s about raising awareness about a genocide against the Palestinian people and their mistreatment that has persisted for decades since 1948; however, its roots go back even further. So, while it is not a new thing to protest for Palestinian rights, the consequences that come from participating in peaceful and sometimes even violent protests for them are new.
When it comes down to consequences for anyone to protest on school campuses for Palestine, or just in general, there has been a significant rise in consequences over the past six months to a year that are unprecedented, to say the least. If anyone in the United States is here on a student visa or an immigrant, they could find their visa revoked, and for some, their scholarships revoked or suspended and expelled from the university.
The factors that determine the amount and type of repercussions all come down to the type of protests the students are involved in, whether or not they are responsible for damage to the school, and/or whether or not there are assaults on police trying to break it up.
At Columbia University, a graduate student named Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, and Rumeysa Ozturk, A Ph.D. candidate from Tufts University, who had a visa, were arrested. It seems Ozturk’s arrest was carried out in response to an op-ed she wrote in her campus newspaper criticizing her school leader’s response to the Israel-Hamas war happening in Gaza. Khalil’s arrest appears to have stemmed from playing a major role in Columbia University’s anti-Israel protests.
Both students were held in detention centers in Louisiana and challenged their arrests before eventually being set free months later. But the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has defended the administration’s efforts and has already revoked hundreds of visas, which include many other students.
Rubio had the following to say when he spoke to reporters about the arrests of Khalil and Ozturk, “We are not going to be importing activists into the United States. They’re here to study. They’re here to go to class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities. I think it’s lunacy to continue to allow that”.
Rubio’s message sends a powerful yet fearful reminder of a fate that could befall someone if they challenge the political system and engage in student protests.
While the benefits to protesting for what we believe and stand for haven’t always come with risks like these, students now must think about whether it’s worth speaking up if their future could also be on the line.
