UF HOUSING ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
KATHY BUSH HOBGOOD
by ELLIOT BEANE
Photos provided by KATHY BUSH HOBGOOD
"Remember that time, energy and
passion are not limitless quantities."
- Kathy Bush Hobgood
Kathy Bush Hobgood often jokes that she got involved in
student affairs and residence life on her freshman movein day at University of Iowa and hasn’t looked back since.
And this is no exaggeration, after moving things into her
room and saying goodbye to family, Kathy wandered
down to the lobby where she was recruited by the hall
council to pour soda as a move-in volunteer. As she puts
it “I must have had a sign on my head the said ‘Involve
me!’” From their Kathy became a member of hall council
and Residence Hall Association as well as a resident
assistant during her junior and senior year.
After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology,
Kathy continued her education at Western Illinois
University where she got her Masters of Science in
Counseling and worked as an Assistant Residence Hall
Director. Kathy’s first job as a Student Affairs profession al
was at Albion College in Michigan, a small school where
she worked as Residence Director and Counselor at the
Counseling Center. During this time she was recruited by
Lisa Diekow at the University of Florida.
Kathy Hobgood came to the University of Florida in
1995 and served as the Residence Director of the new
Apartment Residence Facility, known then as NeRF –
more commonly known today at the Keys Residential
Complex. During this time, the Division of Housing
was implementing still new security protocols
including 24 hour desks. Many of these policies
came as a result of the Gainesville student
murders that had occurred at the beginning of
the decade.
In 1999 Kathy Hobgood left her position as
Residence Director and became the Assistant
Director of Housing for Residence Life – East
Campus. In her first year in this position she
reported directly to James Grimm who was in
his final year of his 23 year long stint as Director
of Housing.
The full-staff retreat in 1997.
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HRE ALUMNI MAGAZINE | UF STUDENT AFFAIRS
Kathy’s most memorable project during her time at UF
was the Writing on the Wall Project. The idea came from
a program at the 2002 NACURH (National Association of
College and University Residence Halls) conference and
she and some dedicated students thought it would be a
cool program to bring back to UF. Her excitement for this
project was met by many roadblocks. Building a concrete
wall on Plaza of the Americas is not an easy endeavor.
As the program adviser for the first three years of the
project, Kathy recalls it as an amazing experience stating
that “people could get offended, but the wall didn’t lie,
these were all things that people had said to others.”
While working at the University of Florida Kathy was
surrounded by “legends of the field” like Art Sandeen,
Norb Dunkel, Lisa Diekow and James Grimm. She was
not set on a housing career when she first came to
Florida but after being surrounded by so much passion
she cannot imagine who would want to work anywhere
besides residence life and housing.
During her time at the University of Florida, Kathy
was encouraged to become an active member of the
regional and national professional organizations in
the field. She has a professional development goal to
always be involved in both a regional organization and
national organization each year. She has been published