CHANGE OF TUNE

Princeton Admits Student Was Abducted During Research Trip

The admission comes five days after The Daily Beast published a story detailing accusations that Princeton was treating the case like a “PR problem.”

Princeton University has finally admitted that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a graduate student who went missing in Iraq six months ago, was in the country conducting research for her dissertation at the time of her suspected kidnapping. The acknowledgement comes five days after The Daily Beast published a report in which the Ivy League institution was accused of breaking multiple promises to the family of the student, who is believed to have been kidnapped by an Iran-backed militia in Baghdad. Emails reviewed by The Daily Beast showed that Tsurkov’s sister had repeatedly urged the school to publicly acknowledge that Elizabeth’s research in Iraq had been approved by Princeton at the time of her abduction. After failing to deliver on that request for months, the university told the Princeton Alumni Weekly on Tuesday that “Elizabeth was kidnapped while enrolled at the University and was in Iraq conducting research related to her approved Ph.D. dissertation topic.”