GOVERNOR PATRICK SWEARS IN RICHARD M. FREELAND AS COMMISSIONER OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Governor Deval Patrick today swore in Richard M. Freeland as the new Commissioner of Higher Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Board of Higher Education Chair Charles Desmond and Education Secretary Paul Reville joined the Governor and representatives from more than 40 higher education institutions from around New England, including President Elsa Nunez of Eastern Connecticut State University, Commissioner Freeland’s wife.

“Dr. Freeland’s accomplishments are rooted in patience and a leadership style for the long-term that focused on making Northeastern a high-quality, student-centered, and practice-oriented university,” said Governor Patrick at the ceremony. “Today, I am asking him to expand that same vision to the Commonwealth’s higher education system as a whole.”

Dr. Freeland is President Emeritus and University Professor at Northeastern University and the Mosakowski Professor of Higher Education at Clark University. He was President of Northeastern from 1996 to 2006. Under his leadership, the college was transformed into a nationally selective residential university, and its ranking on the US News list of “Best National Universities” rose from 162 to 98, a repositioning that the Boston Business Journal called, “one of the most dramatic since US News began ranking in 1983.”

For more high-resolution photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/massgovernor/sets/72157614477482784.