Princeton arranges exclusive tour for wealthy alum's granddaughter

Princeton’s Office of Alumni Affairs sent an email to select students on Wednesday requesting a private tour for a wealthy alumnus and his granddaughter, who are visiting campus later this month.“I am reaching out from the Office of Alumni Affairs to make a special request,” says the email, which was sent by Jeanine O’Grady, an employee in the office. “I need to know rather quickly if you can accommodate this request as there are other visits that need to be scheduled.”A day earlier, 50 people were charged in federal court with a scheme to unfairly buy admission to elite universities, including Yale, Stanford and Georgetown. Princeton was not mentioned in the indictments, and the tour that the Office of Alumni Affairs arranged did not approach the outright bribery and fraud that prosecutors alleged in the criminal cases.The tour is for Peter Ochs, a member of the class of 1965 who made a fortune in the Southern California homebuilding industry. Ochs was honored by the Princeton Club of Orange County in 2010 for his philanthropy.Last week, O’Grady sent an email to students asking for someone to get lunch with the son of Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, a member of the class of 1980 who is now an executive at Goldman Sachs.Mossavar-Rahmani and her husband donated $10 million to the University in 2012 to create an academic center dedicated to studying Iran and the Persian Gulf.Students were offered a free lunch to meet with Mossavar-Rahmani’s son and answer questions that he has about academics and student life at Princeton.Jennifer Caputo, Director of Operations for the Office of Alumni Affairs, wrote in a statement that the Office of Alumni Affairs "provides assistance to any alumna or alumnus who requests it."