Woods, a noted scholar, served in the United States Department of Agriculture and advised international agricultural conferences. He was dean and acting president of the University of Minnesota when the trustees offered him the position as president of the Maryland State College of Agriculture.

He came just as the United States entered World War I and, as a result, became the commandant of a military camp. The U.S. government established the Reserve Officer Training Corps and the Student Army Training Corps in the land grant colleges with the faculty and administration temporarily under Army command.

Entrance requirements were raised, and both the liberal arts and engineering curricula were greatly improved. A new building, several temporary structures, and various improvements were also completed. Both enrollment and the budget increased following the war.

Woods created seven schools, each with its own dean: agriculture, engineering, arts and sciences, chemistry, education, home economics and the graduate school.

The College merged with the University of Maryland at Baltimore in 1920. Woods oversaw the accreditation of the new university by the American Association of Universities in 1926. He resigned that same year, but remained with the school's agriculture department until 1948.

A building on campus, built in 1948, was named after Woods in 1954. Woods Hall is home to the Department of Anthropology, Jewish Studies (Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center), the Department of Women's Studies, Feminist Studies and the Curriculum Transformation Project.

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