College President James Freedman will undergo surgery on Monday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to remove a testicular tumor.
Doctors said the surgery is standard procedure and will determine if the president has cancer.
Freedman is expected to be released from the hospital the next day, according to a prepared College statement. He plans to be away from work for the rest of the week and will miss fund raising dinners in Portland and Seattle.
Details about the nature of the tumor will not be known until after the surgery, according to College Spokesman Alex Huppe.
"He's obviously taking this very seriously," Huppe said. "Unfortunately it's going to make his schedule a little difficult over the next week, but until we know what comes out of the surgery, it's all speculation."
Freedman could not be reached for comment.
Huppe said Freedman discovered the tumor "fairly recently, within a few days," and immediately went to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for examination.
Huppe said the doctors at the DHMC decided to send Freedman to Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. John Richardson, a DHMC urologist, conducted the initial examination and recommended surgery because the tumor may be cancerous, according to the College statement.
Richardson could not be reached for comment on the president's condition.
"If there's even a remote possibility of malignancy they recommended surgery," Huppe said.
Huppe said Freedman underwent additional tests at the DHMC and in Boston, but said he did not know the results of those tests. Freedman sent a memorandum to the Board of Trustees and senior College officials notifying them of his surgery and promising an update of his condition after the procedure.
"While any such surgery is a serious matter, doctors both at DHMC and Mass General feel that there is no cause for concern," Freedman wrote in the memo.
Huppe said Freedman is handling the situation well.
"He is in very good spirits. He's very positive," Huppe said. "But until the surgery is done, we won't know anything else."
Freedman is scheduled to take a six month sabbatical starting Jan. 1. The Trustees have appointed Dean of Faculty James Wright as acting president for those six months.
Typically, the provost is the second ranking College administrator. Bruce Pipes is currently the acting provost until Lee Bollinger takes the post on July 1. Huppe said he is not sure who would act as president if Freedman had to be in the hospital for an extended period of time.
"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it," he said.
