By Anne Levin

Documents released last week by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office have revealed that Rider University’s proposed sale of Westminster Choir College, with which it merged in 1991, would allow the buyer to close the music school at any time after the sale.

This calls into question the University’s repeated assurances that the buyer, a Chinese company known as Kaiwen Education, would continue to operate Westminster for five years after the sale and maintain it for 10 years.

Since the sale of the renowned music school to Kaiwen was announced last year, Rider has declined to provide access to the terms of the contract. But the Westminster Foundation and Princeton Theological Seminary, both of which are suing Rider in opposition to the sale, recently filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, and the documents were released. They contain language stating that Kaiwen would be allowed to close Westminster any time after it is sold, if it decides that operating the college is “impracticable” or “economically unfeasible.”

“That is lawyers’ language for allowing them total discretion to close the college,” said Bruce Afran, the attorney representing the Foundation. “It’s obvious this is the reason Rider was keeping the agreement confidential. They’ve been misleading the public as to the true nature of the sale.”

Rider president Gregory Dell’Omo has repeatedly assured the Westminster and Rider communities that Kaiwen, which is partially operated by the Chinese government, had promised to keep all
Westminster programs intact for five years and maintain the 22-acre Princeton campus for 10. Asked for comment on the released documents, Rider issued a statement saying its board “has worked ceaselessly to find a partner to operate WCC and ultimately determined that the transaction proposed by the current buyer was the best opportunity to preserve WCC in Princeton.”

The statement continues, “The ability to modify, change, or discontinue academic offerings and programs because they are deemed substantially impracticable, economically infeasible, or would substantially adversely affect WCC or Rider is the same right under which Rider has operated Westminster under the terms of the Merger Agreement entered into between Rider and Westminster in 1991. It is irresponsible to suggest that Rider entered into an agreement that allows the buyer to close Westminster at any time.”

Rider’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) expressed “shock and outrage” about the language in the documents. “This latest revelation fits a continuing pattern of deceit,” said longtime Westminster faculty member Joel Phillips. “If the Princeton Theological Seminary and Westminster Foundation weren’t suing Rider, we would never have learned of this provision until it was too late.”

Jeff Halpern, the union’s contract administrator, said, “For more than nine months, Rider President Dell’Omo and the board of trustees have been assuring the University community, as well as the courts and the media, that there are iron-clad guarantees for the long-term continuation of Westminster. Now we learn that in fact they negotiated an agreement that allows for the immediate closure of the school. In my opinion, that goes beyond a simple lack of forthrightness to a serious breach of trust.”

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewall is due to report today, March 27, to Chancery Division Judge Paul Innes, who is overseeing the challenges to the Westminster sale. On April 15, he will hold a meeting with all of the attorneys involved, according to Afran.

Afran stressed that Westminster is not shutting down. “It is only a danger if it is sold, and that’s why we’re fighting this transaction,” he said. “We think this demonstrates that the transaction cannot go forward because it would allow the possibility of the complete loss of this college. We now have confirmation that this is just a land grab.”