Stash the Beer, the Parents Are Coming!

A university student's worst nightmare may be a dream come true for this quaint German city. With an event they're calling Elternalarm! (Look out, parents!), Münster has decided to tap one of its greatest assets -- its 50,000-strong student population.

'Look out, parents!' is slated to take place the first weekend in November. Different from your typical visiting day, when students might check out a school they want to attend, the acidly named 'Look out! is a full-court press to win the hearts and minds of the students and their folks.

Long-term tourists

Hotels will offer visiting parents student rates; old folks can take part in programmed activities from lectures, to concerts, to city tours. They can even join their offspring for a meal in the student canteen.

Organizers hope that after the weekend, parents will think of Münster as a tourist destination long after their child has graduated.

Moreover, with tuition fees going into effect by 2007, creating entire families of Münster boosters simply makes sense.

"Competition among universities is increasing... In the long term, we have to show them what we are doing with their money," University of Münster spokesman Norbert Frie told the KNA news agency.

So far, only 150 parents have signed up to take part, which could be a sign that the kids are less than enthusiastic about having their folks spend a weekend poking into their stuff, their friends and their daily routines -- not to mention killing any party plans they had.

Mom and Dad who?

Organizers say they expect more people to enlist after the semester begins in October, but it's not hard to imagine that the low turnout could be the result of an age old phenomenon -- teenagers wanting to put distance between themselves and their parents after they leave the nest.

"People are certainly divided over it," said Fries. "One colleague told me: 'I would have killed myself if suddenly my old man had been hanging out in my apartment.'"