i peeped her bio and saw she's doing a second masters in folklore which is among ren's academic specialties! he used to be a professor at u of arcadia so while he wouldn't be teaching her program now, he probably knows the person who is regardless of what institution it's affiliated with. small circles of folklore nerds in academia in this big ol' universe, you know? he'd also be a regular at the library, always looking for weird, old books, so they could have struck up a conversation that way! if they became friendly, he'd be happy to discuss her coursework/read her papers for her/help her out however he could. he secretly misses teaching so much, she'd be doing him a favor too tbh.