Coalition Remains Committed To Keeping Westminster Choir College In Princeton

PRINCETON, NJ — While it applauded Rider University’s decision to sell Westminster Choir College and the Princeton campus, a special interest group formed to save the campus is focused on keeping the college where it is.

The Coalition to Save Westminster Choir College in Princeton said the university’s decision is not a guarantee that the college will remain in Princeton, as President Greg Dell’Omo said it would consider selling the college to an institution that would consider relocating the campus.

"We remain steadfastly committed to our title: The Coalition to Save Westminster Choir College in Princeton, Inc., and we are urgently soliciting contributions from all who support the mission of keeping Westminster at its current location in Princeton,” Coalition member Howard McMorris, former Trustee of WCC 1979-91, and a member of the Leadership Council since 1992, said.

“We are deeply grateful to the Board of Trustees for the window of opportunity this gives us to find another affiliation for Westminster,” Coalition President Constance Fee said. “We also hope that Rider’s financial issues will be resolved in a way that will secure the future of Rider University. However, our focus remains firmly fixed on our mission of supporting the high-level training provided to students by Westminster Choir College’s world-class faculty on the Princeton campus, maintaining the international stature of the school, and preserving its legacy.”

Part of that fight has included making the case for historic designation for the campus, although the university had said that would have no impact on their decision.

A glimmer of hope may have come for the coalition shortly after Rider announced it intended to sell the college, when the Princeton Public School Board of Education authorized the school district to look into the possibility of buying the campus for continued educational use in the community.

Rider had been considering closing the campus and consolidating it with the campus in Lawrenceville to help with some of the university’s financial problems before announcing it would partner with an outside entity to sell the college and the campus in a process that may take up to a year.

“As the parents of a current Westminster Choir College student, we respect and support Rider University's decision to maintain Westminster’s integrity,” Robin and Brad Payment said in a statement issued by the coalition. “We hope Rider University finds an institution that will support and continue to invest in the legacy and position that WCC holds in the field of music. We also hope that as the process moves forward, disruption to the current Westminster students and faculty will be minimized so they can remain focused on the excellence that is a Westminster Choir College education.”

“The Westminster community has come together like nothing I’ve ever seen. I am so proud to be a part of it, and I know that our new students next year will be, too,” freshman Christian Koller said.

Alumna Carol Jenkins called Tuesday’s decision “monumental” for the college.

“We were given an opportunity to continue to live, to thrive, to walk towards the future, and preserve our historical past,” Jenkins said. “This gives current students a sigh of relief in knowing that they can continue their studies and promises future students the highest degree of music education available anywhere. We will not be deterred from our goal of finding an affiliation that will allow Westminster Choir College to continue to call its Princeton campus home.”

Attached image: Shea Velloso performs at the historic Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, N.J. as part of the Westminster Choir College 24 Hour Marathon in an effort to defy plans by Rider University to shut down the Westminster campus and sell the land, on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 in Princeton, N.J. (Charles Sykes/AP Images for Westminster Choir College)