Rider's Sale Of Choir College Delayed: Report

The sale of the Westminster Choir College to Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Co., Ltd. for $40 million will reportedly take longer than previously expected.

Rider had planned on finishing the sale in June, but that timeline is no longer in effect and the university is expecting to keep possession of the college into the next academic year, the Princeton Packet reports. Kaiwen must first become accredited and licensed to operate the college before it can take over, and no new timeline for the sale is in place.

Kaiwen’s qualifications for running the college was among the issues Rider Chapter of the American Association of University Professors raised in its opposition to the sale following the announcement.

"It is completely beyond belief that the buyer has the ability, not to mention the desire, to run a world-renowned choir college," Elizabeth Scheiber, a professor of French and Italian and President of the American Association of University Professors, said in a press release issued in February.

The Chinese firm has no experience operating institutions of higher education, and has only been operating schools since 2016.

The Rider chapter of the American Association of University Professors is a union that has challenged the sale and the validity of the announced layoffs that came shortly after Rider announced it would sell the college.

It believed that Kaiwen may be purchasing the land with the intent to close the college and converting the land and buildings for other purposes. In its announcement, Kaiwen stated that it is purchasing the college to increase its own profitability.

See related: Rider Sells WCC To Chinese Company For $40 Million

Patch file photo