Faculty Shocked to Learn Secret Agreement Would Allow Buyer to Close Westminster Choir College
Rider University Misled Courts and Stakeholders by Withholding Key Provision Of Purchase and Sale Agreement
Union Urges AG to Block Sale of Legendary Music School
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For Immediate Release
Contacts:
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Rider University Chapter American Association of University Professors 2083 Lawrenceville Road Lawrenceville NJ 08648 [email protected] https://www.rideraaup.net |
Lawrenceville, NJ, March 25, 2019 – The union that represents all Rider University and Westminster Choir College faculty expressed shock and outrage today on learning that the secret Purchase and Sale Agreement between Rider University and the Buyer, Kaiwen Education, would allow the Buyer to close Westminster Choir College immediately following a completed sale.
Previous public announcements by President Gregory Dell’Omo sought to assure the Westminster and Rider University communities that Kaiwen has promised to keep all Westminster programs intact for five years and maintain its Princeton campus for ten. However, a copy of the Purchase and Sale Agreement obtained by the Westminster Foundation from the New Jersey Attorney General reveals a previously undisclosed provision that allows the Buyer to discontinue Westminster operations if it considers them “impracticable” or “economically infeasible,” notwithstanding contrary commitments contained in the agreement. This provision effectively allows the Buyer at its discretion to negate the five- and ten-year promises at any time.
Long-time Westminster faculty member Joel Phillips stated, “This latest revelation fits a continuing pattern of deceit. 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, stated, “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.”
Halpern added, “It’s not surprising people lose confidence in significant institutions when it becomes normal for their leaders to lie and mislead the public.”
For months the AAUP has expressed deep concerns regarding the Buyer’s complete lack of qualifications to operate a world-class music school and its precarious finances {link: https://www.rideraaup.net/2019-report-on-kaiwen.html }. Next month, the Rider AAUP expects to learn the outcome of the arbitration it filed against Rider over the improper layoff of the Westminster faculty.
AAUP President Michael Brogan said that “such deception is both appalling and profoundly disrespectful to the members of the Rider community.” He added, “I urge the Attorney General to block the sale of Westminster and end this shameful debacle once and for all.”