Judith Woodsworth gets $700,000 severance package after stepping down for ‘personal reasons’
Concordia University will be going into the new year without a president, after Judith Woodsworth stepped down for “personal reasons,” the university announced Wednesday. Woodsworth, who was appointed in 2008, leaves after only two-and-a-half years of a five-year term. The university’s statement noted that Woodsworth “leaves Concordia as one of the province’s only universities with a balanced annual budget and with one of the smallest accumulated deficits.” Despite leaving her term early, Woodsworth will receive a $700,000 payout equal to two years pay. Woodsworth is not the first Concordia president to leave office mid-term in recent years. Claude Lajeunesse, appointed to the top job in 2005, left in 2007. An interim president will be named in January.