‘It would end the school’: Rider plans to move Westminster Choir College from Princeton instead of selling it

After more than two years of protest by alumni, students, faculty, and other supporters, Rider University announced Monday that it would not sell its renowned Westminster Choir College and would instead “explore an alternative relationship” with the Chinese company that had planned to buy the school.

“Given the enormous complexity of the transaction, it became increasingly clear that partnering with an outside entity, even one as well-intentioned as Kaiwen [Education], was not feasible on a viable timeline,” Rider president Gregory G. Dell’Omo said in a statement.

But the decision was not exactly a win for Westminster boosters, who have sought to protect the music school as it has existed for years. Rider will move Westminster from Princeton to the main campus in Lawrenceville next year.

Westminster supporters have long said such a move would irreparably harm the music school’s conservatory environment, saying integration with a larger university campus is fundamentally at odds with the mission of the school and how it operates. The move would ultimately hurt the music program’s ability to attract and train top talent in the long run, they say.

“It would end the school. It would close the school. There’s no way they can support the school,” said Constance Fee, president of the Westminster Foundation. “It would be the end of the school.”

The foundation was formed in response to Rider’s plans several years ago, and with other supporters has protested the university’s plans from the start.

Fee said the foundation would go to court to block the move, expanding a lawsuit filed in 2017.

In its news release Monday announcing the decision, Rider emphasized the university’s financial situation. The university sought to sell Westminster because it said it could not sustain the school in its longtime home. It found a buyer in Kaiwen, a Chinese company with no history in higher education.

That $40 million deal is now off the table. And with no other sale option possible, Westminster will be moved to Lawrenceville, trustee chair Robert S. Schimek said in Monday’s statement. The school will remain on its 23-acre Princeton campus this school year and move in September 2020.

It’s unclear what the alternative partnership between Rider and Kaiwen will look like. The university’s release said they would “work together the next three years on academic and artistic initiatives.”

“Now that it is clear that transferring Westminster Choir College to an external partner is not possible, it is our continuing responsibility to enact a plan that serves the best interests of the entire university,” Schimek wrote. “It is not financially feasible to allow Westminster to continue on its present course as a separate, fully operational campus seven miles apart from Rider’s Lawrenceville campus.”

The university is exploring a sale of the Princeton property, said spokesperson Kristine A. Brown.

Rider has faced financial problems for years. Like many private colleges and universities, it has struggled to maintain enrollment and rein in costs.

Enrollment has fallen from a peak in the 2009-10 school year, and last year, the number of full-time undergraduate students was down 13.3 percent from that peak (to 3,534 from 4,074).

Overall enrollment was down 20 percent from the 2009 peak.

In 2015, the university planned faculty layoffs and program closures before the faculty union agreed to concessions.

In 2017, after the decision to sell Westminster, the Rider faculty passed a no-confidence vote in Dell’Omo and his financial team. A few months later, a group of students, parents, alumni, and other supporters sued Rider, saying the university was violating its agreement from when Rider first bought the music school.

Supporters maintain that Westminster is a bright spot, with a prestigious program that reaches far beyond New Jersey.

But Brown said Westminster’s enrollment has fallen in recent years. While enrollment was once stable at about 460 students, the number now is about 300.

She said the music school has long faced financial deficits. Dell’Omo said in the release that moving the music school to the main campus “represents another investment in the future of the college that we believe will also accelerate reinvestment in Rider and create a very strong, resilient, and cohesive university,” and Brown said Rider has a “very aggressive marketing plan now that the future has been decided.”

Bruce Afran, the foundation’s attorney, said in a statement last week that tenured faculty members had agreed to join an expanded lawsuit “to block Rider University’s continued damage to this vaunted music college” if Rider sought a move to Lawrenceville.

With Monday’s announcement, Fee said, that legal action will move forward. The group hopes to detach Westminster from the university and transfer control to an independent board or other entity.