By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
By Philip Sean Curran
Staff Writer
An organization of Westminster Choir College alumni, faculty and others would sue if Rider University sells its Westminster campus to a home builder or any other buyer that would not run the music school there, the group’s lawyer said Friday.
"If the campus is closed as a result of a merger or sale, litigation will ensue," said Bruce I. Afran, attorney for the Coalition to Save Westminster Choir College in Princeton, during a press conference at which former Gov. Thomas H. Kean announced he was the honorary chairman of the group. "If the campus is merged with another academic entity that runs the school here, then that’s a good outcome."
The threat of a lengthy, drawn out lawsuit comes with Rider looking for a buyer for the music school, ideally to keep it in Princeton. Earlier this year, the university announced it would end its 25-year-relationship with Westminster.
"Since the board meeting on March 28, Rider University, working closely with the Board of Trustees and an outside firm, has made significant progress in our search to identify institutions willing to acquire Westminster Choir College," university spokeswoman Kristine A. Brown said Friday by email. "To date, we have received multiple proposals that will be evaluated by a committee of the Board of Trustees throughout the summer."
The coalition is interested in seeing Westminster return to becoming an independent school, the way it was before merging with Rider in 1992. Donors have stepped forward to offer contributions if the music school can be saved.
"The coalition has made an offer that, if no other solution is acceptable to Rider, the coalition would accept a spin-off of Westminster and has said it will share up to fifty percent of its endowment with Rider," he said. "So we’re making an offer that if Rider can’t or won’t keep Westminster and another school won’t pay to merge, we’re making an ofter to spin off the school."
Afran added the Coalition had experts and administrators, including past dean Robert L. Annis, able to run the school and cover Rider’s $10 million deficit from the Westminster endowment of $20 million.
In turning to Afran, the coalition went with a well-known local public interest attorney with a track record for taking on big institutions. More recently, he led legal fights against Princeton University, challenging its property tax exemption, and the Institute for Advanced Study, regarding its faculty housing project on part of the Princeton Battlefield. In both cases, the suits were settled.
Afran warned that any attempt by Rider to "close the campus through sale will trigger that litigation."
He also pointed to the costs involved for Rider to sell the real estate, including repaying the state $5 million to "recoup" the investment the Christie administration had made in a building that had been built on campus.
"And we’ve said we prefer (Westminster) to be a part of Rider, we prefer these two faculties to stay together, these students to stay together," he said. "We prefer, if that is not possible from Rider’s point of view, that the institution be sold or merged with another academic institution or it be spun off."
"What my clients will not accept is the closing of this campus," he continued, "for one very simple reason. There’s no financial need to do so."
He said that while Rider is struggling financially, Westminster is not. "The solution is not to close down an entity of Rider that is actually thriving now," Afran said.
Rider had indicated that if a future buyer of Westminster only wants the music school, then it would look to sell the real estate to a third party. The Princeton school district has expressed interest in a more than 20-acre parcel as the site of a new school, on land contiguous with Princeton High School and John Witherspoon Middle School.
But for the coalition, that scenario would also end up in a lawsuit.
"Let me say absolutely and without any ambiguity, an option for the Board of Education to buy this campus and turn it into a public school campus or a community education campus is not on our table," Afran said. "That will provoke absolute litigation. And that will, unfortunately, pit part of the community against another part."
For Rider’s part, Brown said that "it remains our highest priority to find an institution that is willing to acquire Westminster Choir College and keep it in Princeton."
"Throughout this process we have been open to any and all proposals that meet the criteria," she said.
As for Kean, he said Westminster needs "saving." He was approached by members of the coalition to take on an honorary role with the group.
"The governor’s help is a remarkable gift to us," said coalition President Constance Fee, "and we are so grateful for that."
"It’s a wonderful, wonderful institution known worldwide," he said. "If New York was about to lose Juilliard, we’d hear it so much. We should hear the same thing in New Jersey if we’ve got a problem with Westminster."
