In his email to the campus community, Dell’Omo cited COVID-19 and changing attitudes toward higher education for the economic situation. Rider’s financial woes caused analysts at Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade its bond rating last year from Ba1 to Ba2, indicating to potential investors that investing in the school is risky because the university may be unable to pay back its debts. Oral arguments for two lawsuits disputing Rider’s right to have moved Westminster from Princeton were heard last month before Superior Court appellate judges in Trenton. The fate of the Princeton campus remains in question. But after a $40 million deal to sell the choir college to a for-profit company based in China fell through, Rider opted to move Westminster to Rider’s Lawrence Township campus. In 2016, Dell’Omo announced plans to seek a buyer for Westminster that would keep the choir college in Princeton. Members of Rider’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) were quick to condemn the administration’s announcement, issuing a statement saying the mention of layoffs violates the existing labor contract, and the unilateral restructuring “violates Rider’s system of shared governance and replaces it with top-down decision making.” The AAUP renewed its call to remove Dell’Omo “for his financial mismanagement of the university.” The cost savings will ease the deficit and position Rider so it can “begin to consistently generate annual net revenue reserves that can be invested back into the university’s future,” Dell’Omo said. All current students whose programs are being eliminated or archived “will have a path toward graduation,” the email said. The email also said Rider will be increasing its investment in seven programs in an effort to help them grow. Graduate programs include Homeland Security and Business Communication. Along with the courses at Westminster, which was moved from its longtime Princeton campus to Rider’s Lawrence Township location in 2020, the list includes undergraduate majors in Economics, Global Studies, and Health Care Policy. Rider President Gregory Dell’Omo emailed the university community June 7 the plan, which affects 25 academic programs. “All that remains of WCC is really Voice Performance and Music Education,” wrote one alumnus on Facebook. Rider University’s announcement last week that 25 academic programs will be eliminated or “archived,” and an undisclosed number of faculty members will be laid off - an effort to address its $20 million deficit - is the latest blow for Westminster Choir College, which has been affiliated with Rider since 1992.Īmong the undergraduate programs on the list are Theory/Composition, Organ Performance, and Sacred Music graduate programs include American and Public Musicology, Piano Pedagogy and Performance, Piano Performance, and Organ Performance.
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