First it was American, then Gallaudet and now Howard — all in all, university presidents in the District just aren’t having a good run.

The Post reported over the weekend that the head of Howard University’s faculty senate called for the removal of the university’s president, H. Patrick Swygert, accusing him of financial mismanagement. Never one to see the glass as half-empty, Swygert, who has served the prestigious historically black university since 1995, fired back with an optimistic assesment of his situation: “I think [the letter] clearly demonstrates how democratic and how open the university is and how free the faculty is to express opinions.”

Whether or not the rumblings of the university’s faculty can be seen as a good indicator of healthy democratic discourse, Swygert now faces the very troubles that his counterparts at both American and Gallaudet faced in recent years. At American, President Ben Ladner suffered a campus-wide uprising over some $500,000 in personal expenses he charged to the university; Gallaudet saw students lock down the deaf university in protest of president-designate Jane Fernandes, who they claimed wasn’t right for the job. Ladner was fired (though not without a hefty and controversial severance package) and Fernandes had her designation rescinded; both universities are still being led by interim presidents.

Will Swygert be next? Maybe, but not for a while. Contrary to his jobless counterparts, Swygert isn’t facing a student-led university lockdown a la Gallaudet or embarassing revelations of a lavish university-funded lifestyle a la American. And though the faculty is grumbling, it seems that some students are cautioning against any rash action. An editorial in Howard’s student newspaper, The Hilltop, defended him today, arguing that the university’s problems cannot be attributed to just one person:

The complications that are attributed Swygert may not all fall on him. Being that he is the president and thus the figurehead of Howard University, he may be being used as a scapegoat for frustrations.

Sorry, Ben and Jane, you’re probably on your own for now. But don’t lose hope — another university president could join the club soon.