LEAVING THE NEST // EDUCATION: As Chapman University freshmen arrive on the Orange campus to face a new life, parents face the end of an era

DATE                  08/25/94
NEWSPAPER             THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SECTION               METRO
EDITION               MORNING
PAGE                  b01
STORY LENGTH          19 INCHES
HEADLINE              LEAVING THE NEST  //  EDUCATION: As Chapman University 
                         freshmen arrive on the Orange campus to  face a new 
                         life, parents face the end of an era.
BYLINE/CREDIT         DAN FROOMKIN:The Orange County Register
SUBJECT TERMS         OC:COLLEGES:STUDENTS:BEGIN:FAMILIES:REACTION
 .
  The parking lots at Chapman University were clogged with station
  wagons and vans. Parents and freshmen grew sweaty lugging
  suitcases, boxes, clothes and computers into barren dorm rooms,
  which suddenly sprang to life.
     But Wednesday was much more than just moving-in day for
  Chapman's 750 new students.
     It was a day for letting go.
     "I cried last night, but I'm OK today," said Randy Driscoll, who
  drove daughter Amber, 17, from Laguna Niguel.
     "It's really difficult on us parents," Upland resident Jim
  Moeller said as he helped son Jason move in.
     "You're letting go and you hope that everything you taught them
  they're going to remember.
     "Now the freedom is there for them to explore, and there's a lot
  of positive and a lot of negative that can come out of that."
     With so many students commuting to area colleges and
  universities, Orange County risks losing a major rite of passage.
     Apron strings never snap so soundly as the day parents move
  their children into their first college dorm room.
     But the tradition is alive and well at Chapman, a small
  liberal-arts college just off the Orange Circle.
     Parents on the brink of tears and students on the brink of
  adulthood worked together to get the VCRs and the bedsheets and the
  teddy bears out of cars and stowed away.
     "It's so exciting because they're starting their lives," said
  Lynn Snow, who brought daughter Stephanie, 18, to Chapman from the
  Bay area. "But it's definitely putting a void in mine."
     Stephanie Snow, however, could barely contain her glee.
     "I've never been away from home in my life,"
  she said. "It's the first day of everything."
     And while Jim Moeller mused about how well he had taught his son
  the important lessons of life, his son was just getting antsy.
     "They're kind of weird," Jason Moeller, 17, said of his mom and
  dad. "They kind of want to spend a lot of time together and they
  say things like, `Are you sure you want to go?' "
     Melissa Kaput's parents spent the drive from Lake Forest trying
  to get in a few last bits of advice.
     "I've been peppered all morning," Kaput, 18, said. " `Do this.
  Don't do that. Beware of this. You must remember this.' "
     Some mothers took satisfaction in knowing their children would
  be well-provisioned on their maiden voyage into the real world.
     This is what Jane Vulliet of Seattle carried on one trip to
  daughter Nancy's room: a bottle of Pine Sol, a bottle of Formula
  409, a bottle of Murphy's Oil Soap, a mop, a broom, a dustpan, and
  an economy-size box of Cheer.
     "They just seemed to be the things that she needed to have,"
  Jane Vulliet said.
     Other mothers were struggling with conflicting pulls.
     "The last couple of weeks, I've been trying to give him that
  little bit of independence, without stepping on his toes, but still
  making sure he has everything," Barbara Britt said of her son,
  Sean, 17.
     But Sean Britt, in turn, was ready to snap those strings fast.
     "I'm glad they're here," he said. "But they'll leave soon."
     "It's, like, freedom," said Ilana Pergola, 18, a freshman from
  Fullerton.
     "It's weird. The world is at our fingertips."