Coalition To Save Westminster Choir College Hires Attorney, Meets With Rider

PRINCETON, NJ — The Coalition to Save Westminster Choir College has retained Princeton attorney Bruce Afran, the group announced this week. Afran will advise the coalition on strategies to keep Westminster Choir College as a thriving and independent academic center.

Rider University announced its intention to sell the college’s Princeton campus in March. The decision came after the university initially said it was looking to close the campus and consolidate it with the campus in Lawrenceville to help with some of the university’s financial problems.

The university has said it will work with an outside entity to sell the college and the campus in a process that may take up to a year. One possibility is to sell the college itself, and then to sell the physical campus as a separate entity.

The coalition opposes the sale, and is seeking Rider’s spin-off of Westminster Choir College as an independent academic institution of music education, as it had been for 60 years prior to the 1991 merger.

“We are grateful for Rider University’s support of Westminster Choir College since the 1991 merger,” Coalition President Constance Fee said. “And while we appreciate Rider’s commitment to Westminster, the Choir College has returned to financial stability and should not be broken up or sold, but must be retained as an independent, intact academic institution.”

The coalition was organized in December after Rider’s initial announcement of consolidation. This proposed action was opposed by the Coalition as it would have resulted in the effective dismemberment of the historic music college.

“Rider’s goal of selling the campus and moving Westminster’s programs to Lawrenceville or another university would diminish, if not destroy this world-class cultural organization,” Coalition member Howard McMorris said. “The Westminster campus is a uniquely designed facility for choral rehearsals, music classes, applied music instruction, and performance that cannot be replicated on Rider’s Lawrenceville campus, or any other campus. We have told Rider President Gregory G. Dell’Omo that the Coalition will litigate rather than see this school sold and effectively broken apart.”

“The 1991 agreement was intended to preserve the historic Princeton campus and maintain Westminster’s ‘separate identity’,” Afran said. “The merger agreement did not give Rider the right to benefit financially from the sale of the campus.”

Coalition representatives and Afran met on Friday, May 19, with Rider University’s leadership team, including President Dell'Omo, Board Chair Mike Kennedy, and Rider General Counsel Mark Solomon, to discuss the Coalition’s proposal to spin off Westminster as an independent academic institution.

“We have had a frank and productive discussion with Rider’s leadership and have proposed that, instead of litigation, Rider and the Coalition begin discussions to return Westminster to its former status as an independent educational institution,” McMorris said. “We believe good faith discussions like this can aid Rider in its financial future while preserving Westminster Choir College as an independent, world-class cultural institution.”

Following Friday’s meeting, President Dell’Omo asked the Coalition team to forward a written proposal that will be considered by Rider’s Board and Executive Committee. The Coalition expects that it will meet again with Rider’s leadership team within 30 days.

Patch file photo