College President James Freedman, in the final two months of his six-month sabbatical in Cambridge, Mass., said Friday he is in good health and is enjoying his time away from Dartmouth.
"The sabbatical is going well," Freedman said in a telephone interview. "It's nice not to have the cares of office."
"I've been typing my own letters," he added with a laugh. "It's a humbling experience."
Freedman said he has divided his free time between reading, writing, resting and socializing, which is a change from the busy life he leads as president of the College.
Freedman said he has finished writing his book, "Idealism and Liberal Education," a treatise on higher education. He said University of Michigan Press will publish the book in January 1996.
A copy of the book will be made available to students sometime in the next few months, Freedman said. He said he has continued to write about higher education, but has nothing formal enough to constitute another book.
Freedman said his doctors have found no evidence to suggest his testicular cancer will reoccur.
"My health is really excellent," he said.
Freedman was diagnosed with cancer last April. He began his sabbatical after six months of chemotherapy treatment for the cancer.
Freedman said he has tried to have minimal contact with the College during his break. He said he speaks with Acting College President Jim Wright about once a week or less.
Wright took over as acting president last January when Freedman began his sabbatical.
College spokesman Alex Huppe said, "We want to keep him as far from Dartmouth issues as possible."
This sabbatical is Freedman's first extended break from work since 1976-77, when he was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It is also his first extended period of time away from the College since he became president in 1987.
Freedman said he finds his hiatus a "very refreshing experience," but adds, "I look very much forward to being back for Commencement."
Freedman is scheduled to return to Hanover to preside over the Commencement ceremonies on June 11.
Freedman said he spends most of his time in Cambridge writing and reading at the apartment he shares with his wife, Bathsheba. Although Harvard Law School provided him with office space, Freedman said he rarely uses the office or the campus.
He added that he spends a lot of time socializing. "I've had a long, good, stimulating lunches with a lot of old friends," Freedman said.
He said he has attended a few Celtics games with noted Harvard legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, a friend from their years as Harvard Law School students. He said he and his wife ate Passover Seder at the Dershowitzes' home.
Last Wednesday, the Freedmans had dinner at a Chinese restaurant with four Dartmouth alumni; Harvard Law School students Bob Bordone '94, Mark Carlston '92, Chris Peters '94 and Peters' wife, Fatima '94, who is studying German at Harvard.
"He's doing great," Bordone said. "We talked about my first term and he assured me I would survive."
