An exchange program you can walk to

When a Westminster Choir College freshman died from a heroin overdose last week, many students were as shocked to learn that there is another undergraduate college in Princeton as they were by the death.

Westminster is a music conservatory serving about 400 students training to become professional musicians. The college moved to Princeton in 1932 and became a subsidiary of Rider University in 1992. Students take classes on music education, organ performance, piano, sacred music, theory and composition, voice performance and music theater.

The college had a close bond with the University in its early years. Then-University president John Hibben, Class of 1882, lobbied the New Jersey governor for approval of Westminster's charter. He also made University grounds available for the college's use, for example by allowing choral services in the University chapel.

Though Westminster is only three-quarters of a mile from Firestone Library and about four blocks from the E-Quad, it still seems distant from the University.

On average, one or two students per semester go to Westminster for courses in vocal or instrumental instruction that are not offered at the University, Westminster Associate Dean Marshall Onofrio said.

The exchange program, created in 1979, also allows Westminster students to take Princeton classes. About six to eight Westminster students take advantage of this program each semester.

Emma Dunbar, a Westminster junior who is enrolled in POL 388: Causes of War, is enjoying taking a class at the University. "I think it's a good change of atmosphere. Our college is very small and specialized," she said.

Celia Barry, another Westminster student, is taking CLA 212: Classical Mythology. "I heard about [the exchange program] through the grapevine, though it is mentioned in some small footnotes in our academic catalog," she said.

She has found the course to be a very good experience, though there have been a few kinks. "No one seemed to know what I should do in terms of student ID and parking," she said, though she was eventually able to get both a Princeton ID card and a netid to use to access Blackboard. Nonetheless, "everything pretty much ran smoothly," she said.

Coming from a school with only 400 students, Barry was also struck by the size of her classes. "It's quite different than most classes at Westminster. I'm in a lecture with 174 people, which was something new for me."

Not as many Princeton students take classes at Westminster as vice versa. Deputy Registrar Robert Bromfield said that, to his knowledge, there are no Princeton students taking courses at Westminster this semester.

"A lot of Princeton students have not actually heard about the opportunity," Onofrio explained.

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Princeton and Westminster students also have opportunities to interact in extracurricular singing groups. Students from the two schools sing together in Kindred Spirit, a Christian a cappella group.

Several Westminster students attend services at the Princeton Episcopal Church and sing in the choir there alongside Princeton students.

"In many ways WCC students bring a great deal to our worshipping community," said Stephen White, the Princeton Episcopal chaplain. "I have experienced them as a group as slightly more theologically and biblically literate than the average Princeton student."

White is impressed with the dedication of Westminster students, who balance traditional course work with "a very demanding schedule of performances which are required for all students, including one a year at Carnegie Hall."

"WCC is as intense and demanding a school as Princeton, albeit in different ways," White said.

Taking courses at another college can be a rewarding academic experience, but it isn't likely to create relationships with other students, Dunbar said. She has some friends at the University, but they are all people she knew before college. "I'm not sure the class environment is the best place to make friends," she said.

Though the Princeton-Westminster exchange is limited to 10 students from each institution per semester, the students who participate find the experience enriching.

"At first I was a little nervous about being viewed as a 'dumb music student,' but that hasn't been the case at all," Barry added in an email. "I'm definitely planning on taking another course at Princeton U. before I graduate."