News
College President James Freedman said he is doing "very, very well" after six rounds of chemotherapy treatment for lymphomatic cancer, in a radio interview that will air later this week.
Freedman discussed a new book he is working on, liberal arts education and his health in an interview in the College radio station's offices conducted by a Boston Globe reporter working for New Hampshire Public Radio Monday afternoon.
"I am feeling very well," Freedman said.
Speaking about the effects of cancer, Freedman, who has lost all of his hair due to the chemotherapy said, "You feel odd, awkward, that people are looking at you."
But he said, "There's nothing you can do but joke or smile about it."
Freedman, who was dressed in a colorful short-sleeved shirt, said he is more comfortable with his appearance but added, "I reflexively reach for the brush and comb."
Freedman returned to Hanover this weekend after a three-week vacation on Cape Cod, the longest he has taken since coming to the College in 1987.
Freedman was diagnosed with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system in April.
In the interview, he said he has gone three-quarters of eight scheduled chemotherapy sessions and that they are "working very well."
He said the chemotherapy will be finished in September, but he has to go for a checkup in October.
According to Freedman his doctors are positive his cancer will remain in remission, though there is a 30 percent chance of reoccurrence in the first two years after the end of treatment.
Laura Kiernan, the reporter who conducted the interview for Concord's WEVH-FM radio also asked Freedman about a bookhe is working on titled "Idealism and Liberal Arts Education."
Freedman said he is very concerned about the replacement of liberal arts schools by vocational ones.
He said we "should make certain that people for whom a liberal arts education is appropriate, don't go astray."
Freedman said he is working on the book and added it might be published in the next six months.
The interview also touched on Freedman's different jobs.
Freedman, when asked what he is going to do during a six month sabbatical that begins in January, said he has an office at Harvard Law School and will remain in Cambridge, Mass.
"I am thrilled by the possibility in being back at a law school for six months," he said.
The interview airs on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
