<p>marite,
I went to a different session than SRMom3, so we heard different presentations. (SRMom was organized enough to make it to the 11:00 one, while we barely got our act together for the 5:00 one for stragglers 
) As far as “helicoptering”, they emphasized that students should try to solve their own problems through several channels before parents intervene, but that parents should call if they had concerns about their child. Some of the examples they gave seemed kind of silly to me, like if the child had a maintenance issue with his or her dorm room, the child should try to resolve it, not the parents. I can’t imagine a parent calling about something like this, but I guess some would.
As far as helping to unpack, my D’s roommate’s family helped her unload her stuff into the room and then departed and said they would meet her for lunch, and did not assist her at all with unpacking and setting up. She did it all herself. On the other hand, my husband, D, and I, were all working full speed at different tasks - e.g. H-computer, me - bed and clothes in closets, D - clothes and other things in drawers, and barely finished unpacking in the allotted time. It took all three of us to unload and organize all of the stuff she brought My D actually asked me for my opinion as to where to put things, etc. I guess each family does things differently, but I was sort of surprised that the roommate’s parents didn’t assist her at all with unpacking.</p>