Sorry, kids, the jigger is up.
It turns out Mom and Dad know something about your liquor habits while you’re off at school… at least if you’re at the University of Minnesota.
According to the Minnesota Daily, a course, “Seminar for Parents: Alcohol Use on Campus,” opened to all parents this semester after being limited to just parents of first-year students in previous years.
Does it work in this age of binge-drinking on campus?
“College kids are college kids, and there’s nothing you’re going to do about it,” one student said.
To access the course, according to a U news release:
Step 1: Go to this Web site to begin the log-in process:
http://projects.education.umn.edu/parentseminar/
Step 2: Follow instructions on the Web page. When asked for an Internet ID and password, use the following:
Internet ID: mnparent
Password: AlcoholSeminar1
(the password is case sensitive, and the last character is number 1)
The course list should provide a link to Parent Program First Year Seminar for Parents – Alcohol Use on Campus .
Step 3: When the course screen comes up, link to “Getting Started” and proceed at your own pace.
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Of particular interest is the section on parents’ attitudes toward campus drinking:
“Some parents complain that University staff and law enforcement personnel are wasting time and harassing their children when they issue citations to students for alcohol use. After all, they say, ‘All students drink. It’s not a big deal.'”
Check out the discussion area, which dates back to 2005, on the subject of what parents did on the first day they could legally drink. Surprisingly, especially considering the introduction above, many of them just weren’t drinkers, which makes me wonder if the right parents are taking the online course.