Volume LXXIII, Number 27
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PU Responds to SCOTUS; Local Action Planned To Support Immigrants
Princeton Library Summer Reading Programs . . . . . 5 PU, Apollo 11, and GPS Technology . . . . . . . . . . 8 HomeFront Celebrates Graduations . . . . . . . . 10 Baseball at Morven on Kafka’s Birthday . . . . . 14 PU Summer Chamber Concerts Presents PUBLIQuartet . . . . . . 15 Former PU Football Star Carlson Aiming to Make Cleveland Browns . . . . 23 PDS Grad Alu Selected in MLB Draft, Off to Hot Start in Minors . . . . . . . . . . . 25
PHS Alum Noah Lilienthal Stars for Wesleyan Men’s Tennis . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach Realtors . .18, 19 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 20 Classified Ads . . . . . . 30 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Music . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 22 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 29 Police Blotter . . . . . . . . 6 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 30 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
As concern grows over the immigration crisis at the border and throughout the country, Princeton University and Microsoft have issued statements in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 decision to review cases regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Meanwhile, Princeton Human Services, in collaboration with the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF) and the Princeton Public Library, last night held a Know Your Rights workshop “in preparation for the expected ICE raids in the upcoming weeks.” The workshop on immigrant rights was planned to provide information for what to do if one has an encounter with ICE. Lawyers were to be present to answer questions and notaries on hand to complete temporary power of attorneys for child guardianship. In further support of the immigrant community, a coalition of area organizations has planned a Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Concentration Camps rally for Friday, July 12, from 7-9 p.m. in Hinds Plaza. Sponsored by Princeton Marching Forward, Indivisible Princeton, Indivisible Cranbury, Princeton Progressive Action Group, the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, Stand Central NJ, and Lawrence Citizen Activists, the event is part of a nationwide protest and vigil “to spotlight the inhumane treatment of immigrant families by the current administration.”
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Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Rider Plans to Keep, Relocate Westminster Rider University announced Monday that a $40 million agreement to sell Westminster Choir College to a Chinese company, Kaiwen Education, is off. Instead, the University plans to move the prestigious music school from its Princeton location to Rider‘s Lawrenceville campus beginning in September, 2020. While those who have consistently opposed the sale to Kaiwen are expressing relief that the deal will not go through, there is considerable opposition to the consolidation plan. “What they want to do is simply illegal,” said attorney Bruce Afran, who is representing the nonprofit Westminster Foundation in efforts to save the school and keep it in Princeton. “So we will be moving in court to block this, as we have before.” Rider’s plan would keep Westminster Choir College, Westminster Conservatory, and the Westminster Continuing Education programs on the 22-acre Princeton campus during the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year. The University has not specified what the Princeton property on Walnut Lane would become after the move. “Those plans are just in beginning discussions,” said Rider spokesperson Kristine Brown, in an email on Tuesday. “If you recall, we were under an exclusivity agreement with Kaiwen until yesterday so
no official plans are in place. However, it is our hope that we will sell the land and retain a portion of the campus for our use.” Rider merged with Westminster in 1991, a time when the music school had serious financial problems. Rider invested in the school’s deteriorating buildings and provided financial support for the school’s performance tours. But in 2017, Rider announced its intention to sell Westminster, citing a projected deficit in Rider’s budget. The University’s Board of Trustees
undertook an international search for an academic institution that would purchase the school and its campus, according to University President Gregory Dell’Omo. In February 2018, Rider announced a $40 million agreement to transfer ownership of Westminster to what was then called Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Co., Ltd., a Chinese bridge and steel company that had recently taken over two schools in Beijing. Continued on Page 4
Eden To Open New Day Center For Senior Citizens with Autism
Most people associate autism with children and young adults. But thanks to better health care and increased understanding of the disorder, people with autism and developmental disabilities are living longer. According to the Association on Aging with Developmental Disabilities, the average life expectancy for people with a developmental disability was just 22 years in 1931. Today, the average life expectancy is 70. Yet only two percent of autism research is focused on seniors, which leaves families with an autistic relative uncertain about the future. It is this kind of statistic that inspired
Eden Autism, the 44-year-old support organization, to create the Schalks Crossing Day Center for Aging Adults. The new center is located in the Plainsboro Plaza on Schalks Crossing Road. The facility opens this month, with an official ribbon cutting scheduled for Thursday, August 15. “There aren’t too many programs focused specifically on senior adults with autism,” said Michael Decker, Eden Autism president and CEO. “A great deal of the emphasis, nationally, has been on children. But that is changing.” Continued on Page 10
DACA
The Supreme Court’s announcement that it will hear arguments on DACA during its next term, which starts in October, threw the fate of the program into limbo again and prompted both Princeton University and Microsoft to urge Congress to take legislative action to protect the Dreamers before the Supreme Court rules on DACA. The Justice Department announced in 2017 that it was ending the program, but subsequently several district courts and courts of appeal ruled that the government’s decision to rescind DACA was unlawful. The DACA program allows some individuals brought to the U.S. as children to receive a renewable two-year period Continued on Page 8
A CHANGE OF PLANS: A deal to sell Westminster Choir College to a Chinese company is off the table . But Rider University’s plan to move the music school from Princeton to Rider’s Lawrenceville campus has many Westminster stakeholders vowing to get the decision reversed . (Photo by Erica M. Cardenas)
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