Grinnell College here, like others, has found it necessary to be explicit about when parents really, truly must say goodbye. After computer printers and duffle bags had been carried to dorm rooms, everyone gathered in the gymnasium, students on one side of the bleachers, parents on the other. Shortly after, mothers and fathers were urged to leave campus.

格林内尔学院认为，当家长来送新生的时候，学校应该明确告诉家长什么时候该与孩子说再见。当学生办完报到手续、行李搬至宿舍之后，就在体育馆举行了新生开学典礼。学生坐在露天看台的一侧，而父母们则坐在另一侧。而此后不久，学校也明确要求家长——离开校园。

Moving their students in usually takes a few hours. Moving on? Most deans can tell stories of parents who lingered around campus for days. At Colgate University, a mother and father once went to their daughter’s classes on the first day of the semester and trouped to the registrar’s office to change her schedule, recalled Beverly Low, the dean of first-year students.

让新生搬进宿舍通常只需要几个小时的时间，但让父母离开校园需要更长时间。家长们会在校园里逗留数天。大多数学院院长都能讲出这些见闻。科尔盖特大学负责一年级学生的教务长贝弗利回忆道，曾经有一对父母在新生入学第一天前往女儿的教室，还到注册办公室要求修改女儿的课程表。

A more common approach is for colleges to introduce blunt language into drop-off schedules specifying the hour for last hugs. As of 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, for example, the parents of Princeton freshmen learn from the move-in schedule, “subsequent orientation events are intended for students only.”

很多学校更是明确地使用直言不讳的词语，告诉父母与孩子分别的具体时间。比如，普林斯顿大学在今年的迎新手册上明确规定，截止到9月11日下午5点30分，“此后的迎新活动都只对学生开放”。