A Q&A with Jennifer Caputo

In her new role, Caputo is a member of the Advancement senior leadership team, a member of President Christopher L. Eisgruber’s cabinet and the director of the Alumni Council. She also oversees the departments of Advancement Events, Affinity Programs, Alumni Communities, Alumni Council Operations, Alumni Education and Travel, Reunions, and Volunteer Engagement.

A native Midwesterner, Caputo steps into her new position at an exciting time for the Princeton alumni community. Earlier this year, University Advancement launched a longitudinal alumni survey, the first of several that will help Princeton understand the evolving needs and engagement of alumni over time. For Caputo, the survey’s aggregated data is essential for building connections and programming that serve alumni, but it’s their anecdotal responses that are helping her better understand the needs of different generations of Tigers and their relationship with the University. “I’ve been reading through the thousands of written comments that alumni submitted with their surveys,” Caputo said. “All of them, little by little. It will probably take me a while, but those notes are so insightful for learning what matters to alumni and where we can meet them.” 

Caputo, who lives in Princeton with her husband, Mike, and three children, shared her thoughts on the present and future of the Princeton alumni community. 

Where did you grow up? Where was home? 

I was born in a small Minnesota farming community, where my dad was a Lutheran minister and my mom was an educator. When I was 3 or 4 years old, we moved to St. Paul, where I lived until I left to attend Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana. My parents traveled quite a bit when I was younger and that instilled in me a love for travel and learning about different places, cultures and people. At our house, there was always someone new at the dinner table on Sundays or staying in the guest room, much to do with my dad’s work. 

You arrived at Princeton in 2012 as associate director for regional affairs. Before then, you worked for Major League Baseball (MLB) for a decade. One way that MLB is similar to what we do at Princeton is that there is an annual cycle or rhythm to the work. Baseball has spring training and the All-Star Game break and the playoffs, and we have Alumni Day and Reunions and the Annual Giving campaign. Did that help with the transition? 

The work felt very familiar in that sense. In baseball, every All-Star Game I helped plan was in a different city. So as you’re doing that advanced planning work, the people at each club become your partners through that process. It’s the same thing at Princeton, working with the different classes and the APGA who are having their major reunions each year or different regional or affinity groups. Every cohort has their own personality, their own way of doing things. Like baseball, Princeton is all about the relationships. It’s about the people. It’s why I love working here. It’s why I get up every morning, excited to come to the office. 

The first affinity conference since the pandemic is scheduled for the fall of 2024. Why is it important to resume these conferences? 

We can see from the results of the longitudinal alumni survey that many alumni feel more connected to the University because of affinity groups. That’s their No. 1 way to connect with the University and fellow alumni. The conferences were started because the University recognized it had some repair work to do with several communities. I think it’s really important that Princeton has acknowledged that. For some alumni who have come back to the conferences, it was the first time they’ve been on campus in decades. And it’s because a friend or classmate said, “You have to come see Princeton now. I think you’ll see it differently.” That’s an invaluable part of the healing process for any Princeton graduate, but also for the University. It’s also important that these conferences are open to all alumni, so that allies and others who have interest can take part and hear from fellow alumni who are sharing their stories and experiences. 

These conferences have been incredibly important and successful, but we couldn’t do that work if it wasn’t for the continued efforts of our affinity group volunteers in close partnership with our affinity programs team. 

You mentioned the alumni survey that was administered this spring. What were some of its most interesting takeaways? 

We’ll be releasing the results of the survey publicly soon. The survey indicated one of the top ways that alumni would like to better engage with the University is through the regional associations, and that’s an area that is near and dear to my heart because my first job at Princeton was on the regional affairs team. Our regional associations are the crossroads of the alumni community. Whether you affiliate most closely with Princeton through your class, your department or APGA, your athletic team or another student organization, or through an affinity group — everybody has a regional association. The regional associations serve as an intersection of all these different areas, and increased programming for the regional associations is one of Advancement’s strategic priorities for the next five years. 

Orange & Black Day seems to be one new tradition that the regional associations have embraced. 

We had regional associations, classes and affinity groups — including undergraduate and graduate alumni — from around the globe request one of our party packs for their celebrations on Orange & Black Day Weekend. We started Orange & Black Day during the pandemic, which was the perfect time to invite alumni to come together as a community and celebrate those orange-and-black connections online. It’s a great new tradition — designed by alumni, for alumni — that’s able to embrace a larger pool of Princetonians in different ways, and now it’s in-person as well as digital. Rich Holland, the chair of the Alumni Council during the pandemic, had the theme of “Princeton is where you are,” and it still rings very true. Anybody can be a part of Orange & Black Day, wherever they are. 

What is the biggest goal for you in your new role? 

I think Monica Moore Thompson’s Alumni Council theme of “I am Princeton, you are Princeton, together we are Princeton” really captures it. Every graduate is a part of this community. The most important part of my job is to be available and listen to alumni — even if I may not always have the answer that you want to hear. The door is always open for alumni, and maybe that just ties back to how I grew up: there was always a place for anyone around the table.