By Anne Levin

Since Rider University moved Westminster Choir College (WCC) from its longtime Princeton location to Rider’s Lawrenceville campus two years ago, Westminster’s dwindling student body has watched the 96-year-old school’s traditions fade. The latest to be headed for extinction is Westminster’s commencement ceremony, a much-anticipated event held each spring at Princeton University Chapel.

Westminster’s May 13 commencement will be its final one at the chapel. Next year, according to Rider Associate Vice President of University Marketing and Communications Kristine Brown, the Westminster students will become part of Rider’s regular graduation ceremonies on the Lawrenceville campus.

“There are many reasons for this, including factors such as the overall number of WCC students graduating and cost, but mostly it is to incorporate all that is special about WCC’s commencement into the overall university commencement for everyone to experience,” Brown said in an email this week.

This doesn’t sit well with alumni, students, and supporters of the choir college, which merged with Rider in 1992 but maintained its identity as a top training ground for musicians and music educators until Rider attempted to sell the 22-acre Princeton campus four years ago. When those efforts proved unsuccessful, Westminster was moved to the Rider campus. The future of the Princeton campus has yet to be decided.

The ceremony at Princeton University Chapel is more than an awarding of diplomas. “This is the final straw for many Westminster Choir College students, and definitely for the alumni,” wrote Barbara Calvert Freund, Class of 1973, in an email. “Many of us would return every year to participate in this glorious celebration of music, and welcome the new WCC graduates into the greater family of alumni who share an ageless and eternal bond.”

In an article in The Rider News, Westminster Professor Joel Phillips called the decision “another attempt by this administration to eradicate something valuable and irreplaceable.”

On May 16, oral arguments are scheduled to take place regarding lawsuits by students and alumni seeking to block Rider’s relocation of Westminster. While the lawsuits were dismissed two years ago by Judge Robert Lougy of New Jersey’s Superior Court Chancery Division, in favor of Rider, appeals were filed on behalf of the alumni and students. The May 16 arguments will be heard by the State Appellate Division of Superior Court.

Key among those seeking to sue Rider are members of the Westminster Foundation, a group made up of alumni and other supporters. Commenting on the news about commencement, Constance Fee, president of the Foundation, said “The reaction of the Westminster Choir College community to the announcement that Rider administration has sacrificed yet another treasured and irreplaceable tradition goes without saying. The purpose of the lawsuits filed by the Westminster Foundation is to return WCC to its home on the Princeton campus, and our focus now is on our own activities and on the hearing scheduled for May 16 at the New Jersey Superior Court.”

The Rider News article also quoted Andrew Bernstein, the Rider Student Government Association president, saying he will continue to fight for the Westminster students and wants to ensure they are represented. The group has had conversations on the subject with Rider President Gregory Dell’Omo and others in the administration, he is quoted in an email. “During conversations with the administration, one of the important acknowledgements has been the need to adjust commencement to account for Westminster traditions,” he said.

Brown said the administration “has already begun discussing ways in which to bring Westminster traditions historically celebrated at the WCC commencement ceremony to the entire campus and student body. We want to not only honor the many WCC traditions, but find ways in which all Rider students can learn about and appreciate those traditions.”

Rider’s goal, she added, “is to create opportunities in which the WCC traditions can be preserved, blended, and celebrated collectively for the benefit of our entire university community. There may even be new opportunities created in the future in which WCC students and alumni can gather around the time of commencement for a special celebration. While those ideas and plans are yet to be finalized, discussions have already begun and will be further developed over the next year. Westminster Choir College is an integral part of Rider University, but we are one university and commencement should reflect all of the university’s collective traditions on a day that is meant to celebrate the achievements of all graduating Rider students.”