Kaiwen Establishes Non-Profit To Run Westminster Choir College

Kaiwen Education (Kaiwen) has established a non-profit organization that will assume control of the Westminster Choir College campus in Princeton once the site is transferred from Rider University to the Beijing-based company next year.

Larry Livingston has been appointed the Interim President of the Westminster Choir College Acquisition Corporation (WCCAC), which will assume operation of the college next year, Kaiwen announced Wednesday morning. Rider University continues to operate the college through June 30, 2019.

On Wednesday, the Rider University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors challenged the credibility of the WCCAC.

“The cover-up continues,” Dr. Jeffrey Halpern of the AAUP said in a release. “Make no mistake this hastily put together entity is nothing more than a shell company whose purpose is to provide cover for a for-profit corporation to acquire a very valuable property to add to its portfolio.”

Halpern claims WCCAC can't claim to be a non-profit because it only recently filed for incorporation on May 1, 2018. As such, it has yet to receive tax-exempt status from the U.S. government as a 503(c)(3), Halpern said.

“WCCAC is in fact a shell company, wholly controlled by the for-profit Kaiwen Education, which provided the funding and named its three corporate trustees,” the union said. “Two of those trustees, Qi Dong and Yu Shi, are directors of Kaiwen Education and their listed address is identical to the corporate headquarters of Kaiwen Education (30 Anli Road, Yangshen Park, Building No 5, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101).

“Regarding the claim Kaiwen Education 'is a well-funded, dynamic entity, financially healthy,' its stock trades at 13.99 RMB, the equivalent of $2.04 US, which equates to a highly speculative 'penny stock.' Kaiwen has shown a profit for only one quarter of the previous nine and that was due to a one-time non-recurring event.”

“The truth is Kaiwen Education has never shown a profit from its core activity and there is no reason to believe it will do so in the future,” Halpern said.

The Rider chapter of the American Association of University Professors has been a vocal opponent of the sale since it was first announced. It challenged the sale and the validity of the announced layoffs that came shortly after Rider announced it would sell the college.

See related: Rider Sells WCC To Chinese Company For $40 Million

In June, Rider and Kaiwen entered into a purchase and sale agreement for the college. The price of the sale is $40 million, but Kaiwen will invest an additional $16 million in the college over a five-year period beginning on the closing date for working capital and capital expenditures, the university said in a release. The $40 million price tag is also subject to transaction adjustments.

“While a variety of educational institutions were considered possible candidates for partnership with Kaiwen in the United States, Westminster Choir College provided a unique and compelling opportunity,” Kaiwen said in a statement. “Renowned for its choral programs and its preeminence in general, WCC represents the commitment to excellence embedded in the philosophy and development of Kaiwen’s international education programs.”

Headquartered in the Haidian District of Beijing, Kaiwen Education presently operates two prominent K-12 schools for serious and talented youth. It said it is planning several more international school campuses.

“Based on the premise of educating young people to become open-minded, inquiring, courageous, reflective, principled, and caring citizens, Kaiwen focuses on humanities, science, arts, and sports,” Kaiwen said. “Believing that quality is a priority, Kaiwen and its schools maintain the highest standards. Kaiwen stresses the equal importance of educating the mind and training the body. In support of that philosophy, Kaiwen campuses feature exceptional facilities for athletics and music performance.”

As for the Westminster Choir College, Kaiwen said it is dedicated to sustaining and growing the college’s reputation as a world-class music school and maintaining it as an artistically preeminent, academically rigorous, and fiscally sound institution. It said it will maintain the college’s historical programs in Princeton.

Livingston is a former Vice President of New England Conservatory of Music, Dean of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and Dean of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. In all, he has been a music school administrator for 25 years.

He will work closely with Dean Marshall Onofrio and all other Westminster Choir College constituents to secure all regulatory approvals and meet other goals, according to Kaiwen.

“Kaiwen is proud to partner with WCC,” the organization said. “For Kaiwen Education, no quest nor dream is seen as more noble or worthy. And it is prepared to devote its power, acumen, and resources to assure WCC a brilliant future.”

At a public forum last month, Westminster Foundation President Constance Fee, a graduate of Westminster Choir College, told the Princeton Packet said she would like to raise the money to buy the college and its Princeton campus from Rider University rather than see it go to Kaiwen.

Patch file photo