Rider Will Sell Westminster Choir College

Rider University announced Tuesday that it plans to sell Westminster Choir College, a small, highly regarded music college with its own campus in Princeton, N.J. The college was merged into Rider in 1992, and university officials have been considering a plan to move the college's programs to Rider's main campus. Rider officials said that it wasn't practical to maintain the two campuses at a time of difficult budget choices for the university. Students, faculty members and alumni of Westminster have opposed the plan to move the college onto the main Rider campus. A statement from Rider said the university would try to sell the college to another entity. Alternatively, Rider could sell the college to an entity that would relocate Westminster, allowing Rider to sell the Princeton campus. Westminster supporters rallied outside the board meeting where Rider trustees agreed on the new plan (photo at right).

Gregory G. Dell’Omo, Rider's president, told PhillyNews.com that he expected strong interest in purchasing Westminster. “We’re obviously looking at other not-for-profit higher education institutions, like us, especially music schools that fall into that category,” he said. “Everything from there to international institutions that might be interested in being near Princeton, to for-profit operations.”