Web cams have been a fixture on college campuses for close to a decade, beaming views of iconic quads and clock towers to would-be students and nostalgic alumni. But this year, Cornell joined a small number of campuses also deploying the cameras in a new way: as a digital tether to parents eager for live glimpses of children on their own for the first time. The Christian Science Monitor reports.

“… There’s a community aspect - waving to your parents, saying ‘hi’ to friends, scheduling times to be by the Web cam - that’s growing,” says Chris Carson, president of CampusTours Inc., a Maine company that builds online tours of colleges.

The trend coincides with a crop of students who are in far more frequent contact with parents than earlier generations. One reason, says Barbara Hofer, a psychologist at Middlebury College in Vermont, is the proliferation of unlimited calling plans, cellphones, e-mail, and text messaging that make a quick check-in easy and cheap. But another reason may be spiraling college costs. “People are monitoring an investment,” she says. “They’ve put so much into this, both in terms of time to prepare kids for school and the money they’re paying once they’re there.”