BLACKSBURG -- Up until the mid-1990s, a typical query posed by a Virginia Tech parent to Ed Spencer would start off something like this: "When my daughter ordered her meal plan ..."

Then about eight years ago, the phrase changed to: "When I ordered my daughter's meal plan ..."

And a few years ago, the question from many parents started with: "When I ordered my meal plan ..."

"Sometimes I feel like saying, 'You have a meal plan?' " Tech's associate vice president for student affairs said, laughing.

Spencer isn't alone in noticing the change in parental involvement on college campuses.

Universities throughout the country are providing new ways to deal with the 21st-century phenomenon of "helicopter parents" -- the term used to describe this new breed of hovering moms and dads.

"The real bad ones, we call them 'Blackhawks,' " Spencer said.

Colleges throughout the country are turning to electronic newsletters, online resources directed at parents and new parent-relations positions to work with moms and dads who are more involved in their children's college education.

Tech named Kimberly Lowe to its first such position in November. Lowe said her main role is helping parents better communicate with the university.

"I coach them, in essence, to help their students," she said. "My perspective on helicopter parents or parents in general is that they're just ultimately concerned for their students."

Tech freshman Ashland Stein said she talks to her parents every day, but not to check in with them.

They trust her to handle financial and academic decisions but she knows of friends who have their parents get their books, schedule classes and, yes, buy their meal plans.

"I had the idea that I was prepared and this is how everyone else would be," she said. "But I'm seeing there's a lot of students who depend on their parents," she said.

Stein's opinion reflected a type of "not in my back yard" sentiment of several students.

While they can think of friends who have overbearing parents, none would characterize their parents as such.

Spencer can recall stories in recent years of mothers making daily morning wake-up calls to their sons in their dorm rooms and a student refusing to speak with a campus police officer after being pulled over until she got her father on the phone.

He believes the phenomenon is a generational issue that began as the "millennial" students -- born between 1982 and 2002 -- began enrolling in college.

Many of these ever-present parents are baby boomers who went to college in the 1960s and 1970s.

Clamoring for more freedom, they put an end to colleges' role as foster parents to the students. They won the right to keep their parents from seeing their grades through the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

Now parents themselves, these same people raised their children in a protective environment, driving their children around in cars with "Baby on Board" signs in the 1980s and ensuring their safety by making them the first generation of kids to wear bike helmets.

The protective philosophy has carried over as their sons and daughters reach young adulthood.

"The very thing they didn't want anything to do with as youth, they're now imposing on their children," Spencer said.

After working in student activity and resident life roles at three colleges before coming to Tech in the fall, Lowe said she was prepared for the volume of questions coming from parents.

"They have higher expectations and they're going to contact us in relation to that," she said. "And I can't say that's necessarily a bad thing."

Those higher expectations have led to universities' catering more to student needs than ever before, be it through new residence halls, student life centers or dining options, said Stuart Trinkle, former director of admissions at Hollins University.

During the late 1990s, Trinkle noticed more and more overbearing parents and said she talks regularly with college administrators who have horror stories about helicopter parents.

Now director of training at a Connecticut-based higher education consulting and marketing firm, Trinkle spoke to parents and students at Roanoke's Community School on Tuesday night.

Her message to parents: Their children have to assume the ultimate responsibility when it comes to applying for college.

That approach will not just benefit students who need to learn to stand on their own two feet, but will also be appreciated by college administrators, Trinkle said.

"Every year you always had that one student that deep down you hoped didn't enroll because you didn't want to put up with their parents for four years," she said.

But it's sometimes difficult for parents to take that step back.

Marjorie Savage, director of the parent program at the University of Minnesota, said parents have been hearing how important it is to be involved in their children's education since they enrolled them in elementary school.

Children, in turn, were told to go to talk to their parents if they had a problem. Just because they're off in college doesn't mean that's going to change, she said.

"That's telling them to change the way they function as a family and they don't like that," said Savage, author of the book, "You're On Your Own (But I'm Here if You Need Me): Mentoring Your Child During the College Years."

She sees parental involvement as a positive thing in general and loathes the term "helicopter parent."

She views the role of parents as being more akin to a global positioning system, ready to help when called upon.

Savage said it's good for parents to be involved, to a point.

For instance, it's great for parents to advise their children when they have problems, but when parents are doing things such as scheduling classes or paying bills, that hinders the students' development, she said.

If that development doesn't take place during college it can hinder students as they enter the job market.

Donna Ratcliffe, Tech's director of career services, said a mother came to a career fair at the university a couple of years ago, handing out her son's resume to potential employers.

Her office frequently hears from parents who call to set up appointments for their children. They tell the parents to have the students call themselves.

Savage pointed out a more practical reason for today's parents to be more involved with their children's college careers.

The rising costs of going to college means parents are footing more of the bill than in years past, sometimes making substantial sacrifices.

"A college education is now considered a family investment," she said.

When Savage was a student at the University of Michigan, her summer job and part-time job during the school year were enough to pay most of her in-state college bill.

Although her family lived just 15 miles from campus, Savage didn't have a car and most of her correspondence with them was through the mail. She rarely used the one pay phone in her dorm.

With the development of cellphones and computers, parents and children can be in nearly constant contact.

"It's not like we're writing letters," said Tech sophomore Suzanne Watkins.

Tech freshman Leila Green, from Danville, said she sees her parents every few weeks and doesn't consider them overbearing. But she's a little wary of their increasing savvy with technology.

"My dad just discovered IM," she said, referring to instant messaging. "I'm not sure I'm happy with that development."

Tech Student Life Director Tom Brown has seen two of his children go to college in his 12 years at Tech.

He thinks it's generally a good thing that students care more about what their parents think now than they did a decade ago.

But regardless of how he or other administrators feel, parent involvement is something college officials have to deal with.

"We can fuss about it all we want, but it's not going away," he said. "It's part of the 'other' on your job resume: 'Deal with parents.' "

Brown estimates that the number of calls his office receives from parents has more than quadrupled since he started at Tech.

In his office on the Tuesday afternoon after spring break, Brown himself had already received three phone calls from parents.

"It's like, 'Here we go,' " he said.