[3] He graduated from Vanderbilt University with his bachelor's degree in 1966, and was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity (Alpha Psi Chapter).

[3] Additionally, he served in various ways with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Association of Dental Schools.

The University of Florida's Graduate Student Council (GSC), an advocacy/student government group, had also worked to bring the issue to the administration's attention and with GAU had representatives on an advisory committee that reviewed bids from insurance companies.

The board of trustees supported the reduction of the number of undergraduates and shifting resources to graduate education and research in the future.

[8] In fall 2010, Machen and Provost Joseph Glover were at the head of an effort to institute block tuition at the University of Florida.

However, on January 8, by the request of Florida Governor Rick Scott, Machen decided to stay on as president of the university.

In March 2010, the board of trustees voted to pay the remaining three installments in a single lump sum so that Machen might avoid further negative tax consequences.

[16] With the addition of the $300,000 lump-sum payment to his base salary and annual performance bonus, Machen's total compensation was approximately $1,050,000 in 2010.

He condemned the proposed boycott in a letter that ran as a full-page advertisement in the August 8, 2007 edition of The New York Times.

He helped write the letter in opposition to a recent vote by Britain's leading faculty union, which decided to debate the possibility of boycotting Israeli academic institutions.

If passed by Britain's University and College Union, the boycott would cut off relations with Israeli schools to serve as a rebuke of Israel's Palestinian policies.

Machen cited LeMieux's strong support for higher education and endorsed Governor Charlie Crist's selection to fill the open senate seat.

[23] Machen and his wife Chris wrote a letter to the editor published in the Gainesville Sun expressing their opposition to a city charter amendment on the March 2009 Gainesville city election ballot that would prohibit transgender individuals from using gender specific public facilities for their chosen gender identity as opposed to their physical identity.

Machen said the money is worth spending, considering the potential impact the results can have on lowering health care costs.

Machen suggested universities should charge higher tuition for science, technology, engineering and math degrees because of their high cost to schools and brought up students' failure to graduate in four years, in spite of the higher credit-hour requirements of some of these degrees as compared to other undergraduate fields of study.