Excited Students, Nervous Parents: An inside look at campus tours

Jessica Diers, Staff Reporter

Jessica_Diers@csumb.edu

April 17, 2008

Nightmares of dropping first-born

children off at college may lead

parents to precariously question

everything during a campus tour

at CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB),

or any college campus. CSUMB’s

tour guides have heard their fair

share of uncomfortable questions

while leading tours given for high

school graduates eager to begin the

college journey and their parents

that dread nothing more than the

child’s departure from the safety

of home-sweet-home.

“Parents will always worry

about their children, it doesn’t

matter how old they are or where

they live, and these strange

questions are mainly generated

through the parent’s fear of

actually letting their child go,”

said freshman and Liberal Studies

major Angelica Meier.

Parents and students meet in

CSUMB’s Alumni and Visitors

Center. A general uneasiness

lingers in the air — similar to

the calm before a storm. Students

tend to sit restlessly awaiting the

start of the tour while parents sit

nervously, eyes wondering over

every spectrum of the pre-tour

room, waiting to prey on potential

tour guides with risqué questions.

“An elderly woman came on one

of my tours with her daughter in

October. She began with a variety

of questions concerning religions

on campus and then went on to ask

how many students were virgins,”

said Freshman and Biology major

and tour ambassador Sarah D.

Rullhausen-Brown. “I initially

did not want to touch that question

with a ten foot pole, but went

on to tell her that each student

has different backgrounds and

viewpoints. Students can make

their own decisions about what

goes on in their personal lives.”

She went on to say that the

school does not keep statistics on

virginity because this is a free

country and sexual intercourse is

not putting innocent bystanders on

campus at risk.

Alarming questions are targeted

at weary tour guides because

they are already students and are

expected to have the answers to

everything, even questions that

sometimes dig too deep. Parents

tend to push boundaries with tour

guides and occasionally focus

questions on personal lives rather

than life on campus.

“The most personal question

I’ve been asked was if I was

a virgin and I just starred at

the parent with a blank face,

speechless that they were actually

serious. I disregarded the question

by laughing it off and moving on

to the next building on our tour,

aspects of my personal life are not

part of the tour,” stated freshman

and Liberal Studies major Kasey

L. Rowe.

Tour guides are prepared to

deal with uncomfortable questions

and form answers that reflect the

positive aspects of CSUMB’s

campus. Unfortunately, innocent

tours of the campus may lead

freshmen to think twice about

letting parents wander outside

of the boundaries of home and

stumble into the personal lives of

CSUMB’s tour guides.