To the Editor:

After two years of talks with Rider University, the Chinese company Kaiwen Education decided to not buy Westminster Choir College (WCC). The two main reasons are probably the lawsuits questioning Rider’s right to sell WCC, and that, since the proposed sale, the number of students dropped by almost 40 percent.

WCC is being decimated, and at this rate it will become a skeleton of its glorious past in a few years.

The above creates an opportunity for the people of Princeton to rise and support the work of the Westminster Foundation whose motto is, “Keep WCC in Princeton.”

Rider University needs to take advantage of this opportunity and to negotiate a deal with the Westminster Foundation to create an independent WCC. Rider’s decision to move WCC’s faculty and students into its Lawrenceville campus and to sell the Princeton campus is a move akin to shooting itself in its leg.

This decision can only end up in a financial disaster for Rider:

The Lawrenceville move will accelerate the loss of students, resulting in further loss of tuition at $43,720 per student, along with $10,020 for room and $5,370 for food, plus misc. fees — almost $60,000 per student per year. Since the 2017 announcement that the Chinese company might buy WCC, the normal student body of WCC dropped by more than 140 students, causing an estimated loss of $5M. In addition there are the costs of moving and integrating WCC into the Lawrenceville campus.

The annual costs of continued litigation, and Rider’s existing deficit, will just pile up in addition to the cost of maintaining the 22.75-acre ghost town in Princeton.

Even if the court will decide that Rider can sell the Princeton WCC property, according to several established Princeton-based real estate agents at best the campus may be sold for $20M.  A sale at the high cost of $1 million per acre will bring only $22.75M, not enough to cover even part of the losses or to solve Rider’s financial problems.

Rider should reconsider its strategy and negotiate an equitable settlement to keep an independent WCC in Princeton.

Every Princetonian who thinks that it is important to keep WCC in Princeton should write letters of support, ask their friends to write letters supporting the Westminster Foundation, and address them to the following:

Governor Philip D. Murphy, Office of the Governor, P.O. Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625.

Mayor Liz Lempert, 400 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ 08540, llempert@princetonnj.gov.

U.S. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, 2442 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, watsoncoleman.house.gov.

Citizens of Princeton, it is not too late. Rise to this opportunity and support the Westminster Foundation. Together we can keep an independent WCC In Princeton.

Ralph Perry
Random Road