Trustees of the College of Wooster called Susanne Woods “the best president for the college” when they hired her in April. Two months later, they balked after learning details about her long-term relationship with a woman, sources say. The day before she was to take office, Ms. Woods withdrew instead.
Both Wooster and Ms. Woods say the reason for their parting had to do with disagreements over the role of the presidency. They have signed a confidentiality agreement and have refused to discuss the matter. But knowledgeable sources say the real reason she didn’t take office had to do with her personal life. No other explanations for her withdrawal have been offered.
A source familiar with the search, who requested anonymity, says that when the trustees hired Ms. Woods for the job in April, they did not know, or did not fully understand, the nature of her relationship with Anne Shaver. Colleagues say Ms. Woods is a very private person who does not describe herself as a lesbian or discuss her sexual orientation.
But Ms. Shaver, an English professor at Denison University, does identify herself as a lesbian. In the Denison campus telephone directory, she lists Ms. Woods as her partner. The two have attended campus functions together at Denison. They own property together, and some of Ms. Woods’s colleagues at Franklin and Marshall College, where she served as vice-president for academic affairs and dean of the college until June 30, describe them as partners.
Some academics were angered by the possibility that homophobia played a role in Wooster’s change of heart about Ms. Woods. Academe “gives up such wonderful people because of bigotry,” says Rhonda R. Rivera, an emeritus professor of law at the Ohio State University. A lesbian and an expert on legal issues involving gays and lesbians, she notes that few, if any, college presidents are openly gay.
Wooster “probably wanted to avoid negative publicity,” she says. “And now they’re going to get it.”
Others suggest, however, that no college’s trustees would have been entirely comfortable with a situation as delicately nuanced, and potentially difficult, as Ms. Woods’s.
Wooster sought out Ms. Woods because she has a reputation as a strong administrator and a committed scholar. The 16-member search committee first contacted her last fall, when it began looking for a successor to Henry Copeland. But she declined to become a candidate. In February, the committee contacted her again when it decided to expand the pool of candidates. This time Ms. Woods agreed to be considered for the post.
Some members of the search committee believe that in offering her the job, the panel moved too fast, and without knowing enough about her. Nonetheless, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, when her appointment was announced, John C. Dowd, a trustee and chairman of the search committee, said: “Our goal was to find the best president for the College of Wooster ... and we have achieved our goal.” Mr. Dowd did not return telephone calls.
After Ms. Woods’s appointment in April, some information about her relationship with Ms. Shaver began making its way to the Wooster campus. The Denison phone directory somehow began circulating among professors at Wooster.
Then Ren Edwards, a lesbian professor at nearby Kenyon College, wrote an open letter in the spring edition of Kenyon’s literary journal. She urged Kenyon’s new president, Robert A. Oden, Jr., to work closely with female presidents of Ohio institutions, including “Wooster’s newly appointed president, lesbian Suzanne [_sic_] Woods.” (Ms. Woods had been on the short list for the Kenyon presidency, too.)
At some point after Ms. Woods’s hiring, these details were passed on to Wooster’s trustees. A few of them also received an anonymous letter that called Ms. Woods a lesbian, the sources say.
A few trustees then met with Ms. Woods and asked her about the references in the Denison directory and the Kenyon journal, one source says. It’s not clear what agreements, if any, were reached during that meeting.
On June 20, Wooster’s trustees were informed in a memorandum that there was to be a telephone conference nine days later “for the sole purpose of acting on matters pertaining to the contract with Susanne Woods.”
Some of the trustees say now that they had no idea what was to be discussed during that conference call and were shocked to learn that Ms. Woods was withdrawing from the presidency, which she was to have assumed on July 1. “By the 29th, it seemed it had become an inevitable outcome for both sides,” says John Compton, a professor at Vanderbilt University and a trustee at Wooster who served on the search committee. He refuses to discuss the reasons for Ms. Woods’s withdrawal but says he was, and continues to be, “deeply impressed with her.” He calls the situation “a loss for the institution and for Dr. Woods.”
While some sources say Ms. Woods was candid with Wooster’s trustees about her relationship with Ms. Shaver, other sources say she wasn’t. Because of the semantics of sexual identity, both sides could be right.
Some sources maintain that Ms. Woods did alert a few trustees on the search committee to her personal life, though the sources say she did not characterize her ties to Ms. Shaver as a lesbian relationship.
Several professors on the search committee say Ms. Woods’s sexual orientation was never discussed during the committee meetings.
And it shouldn’t have been, according to Thomas M. Falkner, a professor of classical studies who served on the search committee. After Ms. Woods withdrew, Mr. Falkner wrote to the board declining to participate in the continuing search for a president. Among other reasons, Mr. Falkner said he was distressed by reports that issues of “personal lifestyle and sexual orientation” may have played a part in the board’s disagreement with Ms. Woods.
Ms. Woods’s withdrawal as president-elect came on June 30. In a statement issued by Wooster, Ms. Woods announced “with deep regret” her decision to withdraw. Her rationale, the statement said, was that “significant differences concerning the role of the president had become apparent between her and Wooster’s Board of Trustees, and that these differences could not be mutually resolved.”
In a memorandum to alumni, Stanley C. Gault, Wooster’s board chairman, said that while he was “disappointed” that Ms. Woods and the board could not resolve their differences, “I am convinced that this decision has been made in the best interests of both Dr. Woods and the college.”
Franklin and Marshall also issued a press release on June 30, supporting Ms. Woods. In it, Richard Kneedler, the president, and William E. Seachrist, the college’s board chairman, lauded her for her excellent leadership.
In an interview, Ms. Woods refused to respond to what she called “rumors.” “The truth is in the press release,” she said. “We thought we had a good fit. The more the board talked about the presidency and what I was happy doing, the more we realized we had a different sense of this. We all acted in good faith.”
When asked whether she had told the search committee and the board about her relationship with Ms. Shaver, she said, “The information is not pertinent.”
Ms. Woods plans to take a year-long sabbatical from Franklin and Marshall. She will spend the year at the Brown University Women Writers Project, which she founded during her 19-year tenure as an English professor there.
Professors and administrators at Wooster, even those on the search committee, are still reeling from the news of her withdrawal. So are many people at Denison, Kenyon, and Franklin and Marshall.
Carolyn A. Durham, a professor of French and coordinator of women’s studies at Wooster, says she was “shocked and dismayed” by the news. “It’s difficult for me to understand how there could have been ‘disagreements about the role of president’ that would not have been discussed prior to her appointment by the board.”
In an interview, John Phillips, a private consultant who worked with Wooster on its presidential search, praised the college for its thoroughness in defining the role and responsibilities of the next president before the search began. He won’t discuss whether Ms. Woods revealed details of her private life during the search. (Wooster professors were angry from the start that the search committee was using a “headhunter” who had persuaded the college to make the process more confidential than past searches had been.)
“I think some people were aware that she was saying in her own way that she may have a little different life style,” says Ron Hustwit, a professor who was a member of the search committee for much of the search. He dropped out for a while and later rejoined the process. “I think some people picked up on this, and some people didn’t.” He says he thought he knew what Ms. Woods meant when she described herself as “unmarried by choice.”
Nancy Grace, head of Wooster’s English department, says: “There was a fair amount of speculation when she was appointed that perhaps she was gay. But I thought, ‘If she is, fine; if she isn’t, fine.’”
“I wasn’t thinking about her as gay or lesbian,” Ms. Grace adds. “I was thinking, ‘Wow, this person is extremely qualified, I’m glad they appointed her.’”
She and Ms. Durham, the women’s studies coordinator, have written Wooster’s trustees demanding a further explanation of Ms. Woods’s decision.
One source says some trustees did consider the possibility that Ms. Woods was a lesbian and asked her about it privately. They thought they understood her to say that she was not a lesbian, the source says, adding that board members may have felt that she had misled them.
For Ms. Durham, that’s not the point. “I don’t think the private life of any professional is anyone’s business,” she says. “But it seems to me the search committee had a responsibility, from the moment that they knew that she was not married, to think of any number of possibilities, and to decide at a much earlier point if they were willing to pursue that candidate.
“They didn’t need to know or not know” if Ms. Woods is a lesbian. What they needed to decide, Ms. Durham says, is, Can we handle it if the president is?
