When asked what he would put on a billboard for the whole world to see, President Freeman answered, “you shall love your crooked neighbour, with your crooked heart.” A line from the poem “As I Walked Out One Evening” by poet Wystan Hugh Auden. Freeman’s optimism for our planet’s future and love for our neighbors’ springs from his time as CCD’s President interacting with dedicated and active students.
Comparing his role as president to that of a symphony conductor, Freeman observed that he wouldn’t be able to successfully do his job without the students, staff, and faculty at CCD. “... [A] conductor alone cannot make music - it takes a whole symphony to make music. And I like the notion that what presidents do best is we stand there and help the musicians perform to their absolute best. And those musicians for CCD, first off, are our students, our staff, and our faculty. I can’t exclude any of those from the symphony or we wouldn’t have a symphony.”
CCD is a symphony that will soon have a new conductor. At the end of December 2020, Dr. Freeman will close his final show as conductor of CCD’s symphony and reflect on a life filled with learning.
From a young age, Freeman was academically inclined and devoted but also on a tough grind. He grew up in a Catholic family with four brothers and a sister. “My first job was when I was nine years old. I would sweep the front and back of the convent, where the sisters of St. Joseph lived and I would get paid fifty cents, a glass of milk, and cookies.”
This continued every Saturday for the young boy. He was such a hard worker that he returned one snow day with nothing to sweep and after repeatedly asking, “Are you sure there is nothing I could do?” he was paid his traditional allowance. He recalled afterwards a sister saying to him, “Study hard this week and you will be fine.”
Due to the same persistence and diligence he showed so early on in life, he would later receive a certificate in economics from Fircroft College, a bachelor's degree in sociology and economics from Antioch College, and a master’s degree in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois. These would eventually earn him the titles of Associate Professor of Economics at Jackson State University, Senior President and Provost at University of Indianapolis, and President at Albany State University.
Everette recalled one memory when he worked as a lonely instructor at Rutgers University. During his time there, he attended his first convocation for the institution's president, Edward J. Bloustein. In his speech, he said, “pity me that the heart is slow to learn what the swift mind beholds at every turn.” quoted from poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay.
The moment left Freeman so astonished that he asked the president about the origin of the quote. To his surprise, Bloustein informed him the book, The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, was sitting on his desk in his office; all he had to do was let the receptionist know, write down the source of the quote, and while he was there: sit in the president’s chair.
Freeman sheepishly made his way to the office and immediately noticed the book but before jotting down the name he said, “I eased into the chair, it rocked for a moment and I thought to myself ‘I could do this.’”
And eventually, he did. Over the course of two decades, he not only has carried numerous titles in institutions but has carried the tradition of sitting in the president’s chair and creating a line of memories for students.
In September of 2013, he received a call from Nancy McCallin, former president of CCD, confirming he was the finalist to be the upcoming president.
This news reminded him of a time at the start of his career when he would teach non-traditional adult students at Rutgers University in the evenings. “...[W]hen this job was offered to me, I said, ‘you get to go full circle, working with non-traditional students … you can end your career in the same place. So, I thought it was the best job on earth coming to the Community College of Denver.’”
Serving as President of CCD allowed him to once again work in a similar environment surrounded by diversity and equity. During his time at CCD, Freeman has helped the college increase diversity and student success with over 11,00 students from 45 countries, improve support programs, and has received various multi-million dollar grants for STEM ensuring a pathway of opportunities and accomplishments for all CityHawks.
He spoke promising words of the college’s aim for the near future and stated, “CCD will be thriving and selling in key areas...that is equity, accessibility, and quality. CCD has a laser-like focus on equity: equity in the way we do pedagogy, help students with outcomes, and how we try to have faculty and staff that reflects the student body.”
There will still be ways to maintain communication with him such as his LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook profiles (although they will pivot to private). After joking about making a Snapchat and TikTok, he expressed his hope that students will keep in contact with him as he was able to do with mentors after graduating from college. Freeman will be a free man from his tenure - but his respect and devotion to faculty and students is everlasting.
Freeman will continue living in Denver for his love of the mountains and the Colorado Symphony. In lieu of presidency, he plans to spend his retirement listening to his grand collection of vinyl records and learning how to play the upright bass.
While CCD’s symphony carries on with its music and begins its performance with a new conductor, the beautiful arrangement once performed with President Freeman will certainly continue to echo on throughout the campus.