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Howard's Swygert Pledges Smooth Transition

By Phillip Lucas and Traver Riggins
Black College Wire

H. Patrick Swygert, shown at Howard University's May 12 commencement, said he wanted to announce his retirement as president now in order to give a proper farewell to this year's senior class. Media mogul Oprah Winfrey, commencement speaker, looks on.

H. Patrick Swygert, who announced his retirement as Howard University president in the wake of criticism from the Faculty Senate, has pledged to work with the Board of Trustees and the community to ensure a smooth transition to his successor. His retirement is effective June 30, 2008.

“This really was so sudden. It was a big surprise to the board. We honestly didn’t even know that President Swygert was going to be announcing his retirement as soon as he did,” Jabari Smith, Howard University undergraduate trustee, said. But, Smith added, “At the end of the day, I know that the board supports President Swygert’s decision to resign.”

Swygert’s April 27 announcement followed a letter from the Faculty Senate to the Board of Trustees in early March. The letter voiced the senate’s displeasure with the state of the university. Members voted 16 to 2, with one member absent, to send the letter to Board Chairman Addison Barry Rand.

“Not only have the Faculty lost confidence in the ability of President Swygert to lead this University, but more importantly, the Faculty have exhausted their patience and seek to end what has become an intolerable condition of incompetence and dysfunction at the highest level,” the senate wrote to Rand. The group said the letter was not a personal indictment of Swygert, who has led the university for 12 years, but an attempt to guard and protect the university's character, integrity, life and health.

Additional issues raised by the Faculty Senate, as reported in the Washington Post, include a decline of academic programs and facilities and failure to implement programs after funds had been allocated for them.

Swygert told the Post he had put the school in a sound direction and felt it was time to think about the next phase of his life. He wanted to announce his decision now, he said, to give a proper farewell to the senior class, graduating May 12.

"We just finished a great capital campaign, this is a terrific class and Oprah [Winfrey] is going to be our commencement speaker," he said to the newspaper. "What better time? I would hate to have any of my soon-to-be graduates say to me, 'Why didn't you tell us?'"

In his letter, Swygert mentioned working with the board and community in ensuring a smooth transition, among other goals on his agenda for the upcoming school year. He said he was confident in Howard students' abilities to be "Leaders for America and the Global Community."

Smith said there would not be much time to complete the search process, but the trustees will do what they can to find a permanent replacement. He added that the board should begin assembling the selection committee at the start of the 2007-08 school year. Smith said student representatives such as the Howard University Student Association president and vice president, student trustees, members of the Hilltop policy board and the editor-in-chief of the Hilltop could be expected to be chosen to represent the student body. “They’ll take certain measures to make sure that the student voice is heard,” he said.

Drew Costley, incoming Hilltop editor-in-chief, said he did not know yet whether the Hilltop would participate in the selection process.

The trustees are planning for a committee that includes four demographic groups: student leaders, chief administrators, members of the board of trustees and faculty.

“I honestly don’t think that the university is looking for an interim,” Smith added.

Swygert initiated and completed a list of projects to better the university, the Howard community and the surrounding Washington community. When he took the position in 1995, he became the university's fourth president in six years. Since then, Swygert has overseen the completion of two computer labs, the I-Lab and the Commuter I-Lab, construction of the Louis Stokes Health Library and the Howard University Law Library was completed under his administration as well.

This March, the Campaign for Howard, a $250 million fundraising campaign for the university, was completed 10 months ahead of schedule.

The university has phased through two strategic plans, called Strategic Frameworks for Action, and in his letter, Swygert said that he intends to continue with Strategic Framework for Action III during his final academic year at Howard.

"I think he's made his impact on the university and he really has the university's best interests at heart. I think that's why he's going to work on the Strategic Framework for Action III, because the other two have been really successful," said Marcus Ware, incoming 2007-08 Howard University Student Association president.

Swygert's memo to the Howard community mentions other accomplishments, including the addition of 142 tenure-track faculty members, an A+ credit score rating by Standard & Poor's and an Intel Corp. ranking of Howard as among the top 24 wireless universities in the country.

Swygert spearheaded community improvement and development.

"We can join as well in celebration of the LeDroit Park Initiative, now a nationally recognized model for university- community neighborhood revitalization efforts," Swygert wrote. The initiative, created in 1996, seeks to improve the surrounding neighborhood.

The letter did not specifically address why the president is choosing to retire.

Theodore Bremner, chairman of the Faculty Senate, said the Senate had asked for Swygert's retirement, so Senate members are pleased.

Nadia Pinto, the incoming undergraduate trustee, likened the university presidency to being a CEO of a business. "I don't think the problems fall back on the president; the president is the person at the forefront," she said. "If a major problem occurs, you always look at a president as the face of whom or what anything at the university is attributed to," she added.

Karinda Harris, a graduating finance major, said, "He is the scapegoat person. There are people who work under him with responsibilities too."

Phillip Lucas and Traver Riggins, students at Howard University, write for the Hilltop. To comment, e-mail [email protected]

Posted May 11, 2007