GET TO MEET RENA
Housing & Residence Education Staff Highlight
by MARY C. JORDAN
photos provided by RENA BUCHAN
Rena Buchan is one of our department’s longest serving
and most beloved figures. A Long Island native who
began her career in the Midwest, Rena found her home
in Gainesville and at the University of Florida. While
Rena currently serves as Coordinator for Financial and IT
Services, she has been with the department for over 30
years in graduate and family housing. I had the pleasure
of sitting down with Rena and learning about the many
adventures that brought her to and kept her with the
Department of Housing and Residence Education.
Rena was born and raised in Brookville, New York,
on Long Island. She left home at 18 to attend Hope
College, in Michigan. She worked in diverse student
affairs roles at Hope College, Western Michigan University,
Bowling Green State University, and Ohio State University
at Mansfield before coming to the University of Florida.
Rena arrives in style stepping out of a Lincoln
SUV for her birthday with Greg.
of Village Programs beginning in 1983. “I loved that job,”
she said. “I worked with Mayor’s Council and planned all
the programs in all the villages. At the time we had five
graduate hall directors, which was a neat model for the
villages.”
Rena (center front) celebrating her birthday with
the Graduate and Family Housing staff.
Additionally, within her first few weeks at UF, Rena
connected the ACUHO-I (Association of College and
University Housing Officers - International) Apartment
Housing Community. “For that first conference
they actually sent me right back to Michigan,” she
remembered. “It was a small group, maybe 30 people. But
it was a great group, and I went every year afterwards.”
After an exciting early career, Rena started looking for
her next job via the Chronicle of Higher Education, which
was an actual newspaper at the time. She sent out paper
copies of resumes via US mail. One day Rena got a call
from UF Housing, who were so impressed by her that
they decided to forgo the traditional phone interview and
invited her directly to campus for an in-person interview.
To this day, Rena stays in touch with many of those
colleagues. “When we were together we felt we talked
the same language. In meetings at our own campuses
it was 90% residence halls,” she said. “But we were all
dealing with the same things. When our international
numbers were going way up, that wasn’t just a trend
here, it was across the country in family housing.”
“I didn’t know UF existed, to tell you the truth,” Rena
said. “I had only heard of FSU. I got a call from Jim
Grimm’s secretary that I would fly into Gainesville. I said,
‘not Tallahassee?’”
For many years Rena lived in Tanglewood Village,
which is where she bonded with her dear friend Sharon
Blansett. Rena recalls many unusual memories from
their Tanglewood days.
Rena flew down mid-July, and her most memorable
part of the interview was the heat. In her suit and high
neck blouse, Rena may have been warm, but she got
the position. Working in administrative services and
reporting to Gene Luna, Rena served as the Coordinator
“We had a used car salesman with ads in the Alligator
trying to sell cars out of the back of Tanglewood,” Rena
said. “Another time, a new family put a goat in the oven
right on the rack. It blew up and