The Face-Off:
Sparks of controversy fly as WCC integration forges ahead

PRO:
As the Princeton campus’ SGA President, I adamantly support the University’s proposal to create a new, two-campus “arts” college encompassing the arts programs at Rider. I laud President Mordechai Rozanski and Dean Robert Annis for originally developing this plan in response to the conclusion of the Board of Trustees that the initial three scenarios regarding Westminster’s future were unsatisfactory. This new plan, “Option D,” calls for a college combining the tremendous legacy of Westminster’s core programs with the significant Lawrenceville dance, music, theater and visual arts programs. I wish to offer you the reasoning behind my support of the proposal.

This new college will bring great opportunities and resources to our University. Academically, its creation will allow for increased scholarly collaborations, innovative programs and inter-disciplinary dialogues. It will also attract a more qualified and diverse student body and faculty. The academic and artistic leadership will improve programs, inspire students and increase Rider’s recognition.

A new college will also increase Advancement’s ability to fundraise for Rider’s arts. The new college will undoubtedly appeal to more investor partners, greatly expanding investment opportunities. Increased gifts can translate into improved facilities, faculty enhancements, lower student-to-faculty ratios, higher-quality programs and increased financial assistance.

Moreover, the new college will help realize our University mission and further our strategic initiative to enhance connections across all disciplines.
I am aware of and wish to address “perceivable” threats of the proposal, including loss of Westminster’s identity, loss of the Fine Arts Department’s identity, cultural differences between both campuses’ programs and students, the abhorrence of academic reorganization and cost.

Under the proposed plan, there will be no additional loss of Westminster’s identity. Westminster’s programs will continue, with the core unchanged at Princeton; the Westminster Choir College unit of the new college will stay relatively intact; the Westminster name will continue; and the choral core of Westminster’s music programs will only be bolstered. In fact, the only potential threat to Westminster’s identity is the current, but unrelated, possible omission of the College’s beloved 70-year-old shield in the newly proposed logos.

“Option D” will not threaten the Fine Arts Department’s identity. In addition to identifying themselves as Rider art, theater, dance or music majors, Lawrenceville students and alumni will be able to take part in the growth. This is the best of both worlds.
While I recognize cultural differences exist, I am convinced that our arts communities share common goals.

However, anyone can see that despite, the initial discomfort, challenges and costs the University may experience in this academic reorganization, the overwhelming opportunities and resources presented by this plan substantially realize Rider’s mission and values. Improving fiscal health, enhancing discipline connectedness, creating inter-disciplinary opportunities and bolstering the arts are attainable goals that will fulfill our vision and build a greater University.
Westminster and the arts at Lawrenceville should finally move forward with “Option D.”

—Christian Stück


CON:

I doubt if any of us students were around when we acquired Westminster Choir College (WCC) back in the early ’90s. Some of us take voice lessons there or BHP classes, and some of us are talented enough to join a WCC choir.

Let me tell you before I go any further that I have the greatest respect for Westminster. I’ve seen its choirs perform several times and have been absolutely amazed; its choirs perform with the world’s best orchestras regularly. No reasonable person could doubt the quality produced.

That said, I sometimes wonder why Lawrenceville is affiliated with them.
There are a lot of different ways to see WCC in relation to Lawrenceville, and none make this partnership practical. One way to see it is as separate from Rider in all things but name. Westminster’s mission statement, promoting itself as “a professional college of music with a unique choral emphasis,” certainly makes an argument.

Another way to see it is as a legitimate part of Rider, providing another set of majors. After all, don’t we have an absolutely spectacular theater program? We’ve got a dance program, art programs, hell, even a music concentration. What’s the difference?

The difference is more philosophical. Any Lawrenceville student knows the ostensible drudgery of the “core curriculum.” We get many electives as well. There’s a reason for these enforced side dishes, however; Rider wants its graduates to be marketable as employees and enriched human beings. This is why business majors take computer information systems, history majors take philosophy courses and communication majors take math courses. Naturally, we all have majors, but we’re not blinded to the rest of the world.

The major-specific requirements for an English major take up only 30 percent of his or her total credits. Even within physics, a severely technical field, just under 50 percent of required credits are devoted to the major. Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance candidates, however, take 69 percent of their credits within music or performance-specific courses.

If you come out of Lawrenceville, you’re not exactly a jack of all trades, but you haven’t been groomed for one specific skill set, either. WCC puts out performers; they’re among the best in the world. WCC’s philosophy isn’t better or worse. Just different, and far more appropriate.

There’s another viewpoint I’ve found, relating to a recently proposed plan to merge the campuses. There will be a new college allowing non-arts majors with artistic passion to enrich their studies and arts majors on one campus to pursue artistic endeavors on the other. That’s unity, right?

Call me a buzz-killer, but I think it could dilute what makes Westminster so special. WCC is a place for talented people; I fear this collaboration is a step toward melting Westminster down and re-molding it as another unit of Rider.

Rider’s partnership with Westminster is severely impractical for both sides. Wesminster has an attachment with little-to-no academic or philosophical relationship to the main campus. Westminster has been absorbed by an alien culture with which it is not merging. The true tragedy, in my opinion, is that if Westminster does give up and begin fusing with Rider, they’ll lose what makes them so special. And that would be a shame.