Algeania Warren Freeman has no illusions about why she was named the 20th president of Wilberforce University.
“I’m the one you go to when institutions are at rock bottom,” she says.
That blunt assessment is particularly true of Wilberforce. The school’s enrollment has plummeted to 354 students, Freeman says. The school is in danger of losing its accreditation—making students ineligible for financial aid. And Wilberforce had a $659,000 deficit at the end of the last fiscal year, according to its tax return.
It’s a situation that Freeman has faced—and solved—at least twice in her career. She was president of Martin College in Indianapolis and at Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C. When Wilberforce approached, however, she was reluctant to take the challenge.
“Last October, I came down with breast cancer,” she says. “But I’m a praying woman.
“One morning, I went to church after vacillating, and I said ‘Okay, Lord. If this is what you want me to do, I’ll give it my best effort.’”
