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MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2025

VOLUME 119 - ISSUE 23 Not officially associated with the University of Florida

Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida

Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo bids farewell to otter family The seven Asian small-clawed otters will be transferred to the Memphis Zoo March 5 By Shaine Davison Alligator Staff Writer

Morgan Waters // Alligator Staff

Santa Fe Teaching Zoo’s otters enjoy their farewell party before being relocated to Memphis zoo on Sunday, March 2, 2025.

Bernard ‘Bernie’ O’Donnell Jr., beloved UF law professor, dies at 55 FAMILY AND STUDENTS RECOUNT HIS PASSION FOR LAW AND LEARNING

By Sofia Meyers Alligator Staff Writer

Bernard “Bernie” O’Donnell Jr.’s quiet-yet-playful demeanor is what made his office hours an outlet for success and community. For years, students counted on finding the UF law professor sipping black coffee and eating a Wawa breakfast at the table to the right of Library West’s escalators. There, O’Donnell guided students through academics and internships, and sometimes simply provided a good

SPORTS/SPECIAL/CUTOUT

Seat Story 5description finish with comma, A pg#vacant seat and its impacts to ACPS. Read more on pg. 5.

laugh. O’Donnell passed away in Gainesville Feb. 23. He was 55. Students remembered him for his honesty and academic rigor. Known for his straightforwardness, O’Donnell challenged students with hard-hitting lessons and critiques, always with the intent of helping them thrive in law. Ella Morejon, a 19-year-old UF political science and criminology sophomore, said while O’Donnell was “notorious” for using a red pen to make “crazy annotations” on students’ assignments, his only goal was to help his students excel in law. “We honestly laughed a lot in the process,” Morejon said. “He wasted

no words, n. No breath.” O’Donnell was known for his insistence on single-sided paper, secured with binder clips, and for meticulously marking assignments in red ink. In tribute, students set up a memorial at his usual spot in Library West, leaving flowers, binder clips and notes written in red ink — symbols of his unique teaching style. Born on Oct. 31, 1969, in Bay Village, Ohio, O’Donnell graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1987 before attending the Marine Military Academy in Texas. He earned his undergraduate degree from Mary Washington College in 1993. After graduating, he taught at Loyola Academy in Chicago before

SEE OBITUARY, PAGE 4

The Avenue: Prizilla

A neo-soul band is finding its place in Gainesville, pg. 6

After years of delighted visitors, the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo’s family of seven Asian small-clawed otters is headed to a new home. On Wednesday, they’ll embark on a 700-mile journey to the Memphis Zoo. Over the weekend, Gainesville community members gathered at the zoo to say their goodbyes to the close-knit critters, watching them wrestle in their enclosure’s pool, zip down a makeshift water slide and nuzzle against each other under the sun. Parents lifted children out of their strollers for a better view as the otters showcased their skills — pressing buttons to communicate with their trainers. Each button is hung on a painted wood block behind the enclosure’s mesh border and represents a different need or desire, like food preferences or training requests. The buttons include: “yes,” “all done,” “settle” and “want.” “When you have a very social animal, a lot of intellect goes into that because they have complex communication,” said Jade Woodling, a conservation education curator at the zoo. The move comes as the zoo prepares to update its aging otter habitat. Meanwhile, the Memphis Zoo was seeking a larger otter group, making the transition a “serendipitous” decision, Woodling said. The otters’ journey will be

carefully coordinated, with Santa Fe staff meeting Memphis zookeepers halfway to ensure a smooth handoff. Memphis trainers, new to the button communication system, have already been introduced to words like “keeper,” “otter” and “new” to ease the transition. Santa Fe keepers have also been playing sounds of gibbons in the otter’s enclosure to prepare them for their new neighbors at Memphis Zoo, according to Lorna Collins, a senior keeper at the zoo. “It’s going to be a great way for them to communicate with their new trainers,” Collins said, adding that any move is going to be stressful for an animal, and Santa Fe’s goal is to make the transition as soon as possible. Duncan and Chitra are the parents of the family, and moved to Gainesville in 2019 from Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the Santa Barbara Zoo, respectively. They do everything together, according to Collins, including raising their five pups — Kairi, Asami, Buddy, Nutmeg and Noelle — born in 2020 and 2023. The whole family is “a lively bunch,” Collins said. “It's going to be very very hard walking through here and not seeing them everyday.” Each otter has its own distinct personality. Kairi, known for her quiet and focused nature, will sit for hours to receive scratches and hold hands — unless she’s in a bad mood, according to her train-

SEE OTTERS, PAGE 3

AI and health

How AI is redefining mental health support, pg. 5

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