I'm pretty sure that she's not talking about tours, at least I hope not, probably more talking about freshman orientations over the summer. Either way I agree it's a pretty negative attitude and it's a good thing she's not a tourguide or counselor
I was a Freshman Peer Counselor for Pitt- we basically ran the orientation programs. What she's talking about I can definately see. The kids come for usually 2 or 3 days- sometimes parents come with them, sometimes they don't. There's a lot of programming for the parents set up, so that the students can meet with their advisors (which the school prefers to do w/o initial parent involvement- that way Susie the Science mind doesn't have her parents there saying, oh, my daughter's going to be a lawyer. While the girl has no desire to do that- i've seen it!), take their placement test, and get to know some other students socially.
I think she's talking about the parents who come to these things with their kids and don't let them out of their sight. There's been parents that wanted to sit next to their kid while they were taking a placement exam, and she threw an absolute isht fit when we told her that no one else was allowed in the room. There's parents that make sure they're absolutely glued to their kid the entire time- the kid doesn't get a chance to meet other students, speak up for themselves, etc. It's one thing to show an interest and involvement in your child's education, it's another thing entirely to hamper their independence and social deveopment (which of course, you're not doing, DeltAlum!)
There are some parents and kids who really do need to at least LOOSEN the apron strings.