The dean of UVA’s College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Meredith Jung-En Woo, announced in a letter to students and faculty Monday that she will step down next May.
Woo came to UVA from the University of Michigan in 2008 on a five-year contract. It was extended for an additional year last spring.
“It has been a distinct privilege, one of the greatest in my life, to lead the College—and above all, to work with you,” she wrote. She went on to detail UVA’s accomplishments during her tenure, including increasing fundraising from $24.5 million in 2009-10 to $62 million in 2012-13.
“Dean Woo has made many valuable contributions to the University of Virginia as dean, and was extraordinarily gracious in agreeing to extend her original five-year term for a sixth year,” read a statement from UVA released shortly after Woo’s announcement.
Woo, whose salary was listed as $320,000 for the 2012-13 academic year, underwent a performance review this past spring, according to an April story in the Cavalier Daily—standard practice toward the end of University deans’ five-year terms. Provost John Simon also conducted reappointment reviews of Law School Dean Paul Mahoney and Nursing School Dean Dorrie Fontaine in April, the Cav Daily reported, both of whom were reappointed.
Woo plans to take a sabbatical in 2014 and complete her book, The Three Worlds of East Asian Capitalism, and then return to the faculty. The University said it will welcome her back, and is now convening a search committee to look for her replacement.