by Nancy Linenkugel
Contributor
Recently I happened to be heading toward downtown Cincinnati on I-75 south. I couldn’t tell you how many hundreds of times I’ve driven on I-75, as this is one of two major expressways through the city. I-75 starts in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and goes all the way to Florida, so Cincinnati is part of the north-south traverse of this major highway.
Due to some construction on I-75’s approach into downtown, traffic was moving more slowly than usual and I got a more leisurely look at a sign I’ve seen hundreds of times: the I-75 alert sign for Exit 6 pairing the Cincinnati Zoo and Xavier University as attractions "next right."
Given the relatively slow speed of traffic through this stretch of highway, I began to think about the possible meanings of this pairing. A passing motorist’s first reaction might be something like, “Well, that’s a good one. Any university is a zoo and that goes for Xavier. Chaotic behavior of college students ensures that.”
Go beyond the funnies. A zoo, or zoological park, is a place in which animals are shown in public exhibition, bred, saved from extinction and celebrated. A university is an institution of the highest educational levels in a community of teachers and scholars. Both institutions connect us to the world around us, so perhaps there are more similarities than we think:
| Zoo | University | |
| Education | Educates children and families about living animals, both wild and domestic: See what you haven't seen before by expanding the vista of what exists in the world around us. | Educates students about a broad variety of subject matter: See what you haven't seen before by expanding vistas of learning and subject matter. |
| Practicality | Combines the exhibit aspects with applied research and behavioral observation to better understand species. | Combines scholarly pursuit with practitioner aspects like internships, field experiences, residencies, etc. to apply what is learned. |
| Research | Conducts various studies regarding animal species, characteristics, needs and breeding. | Conducts various studies via faculty who explore a broad array of academic investigation into theories, practices and innovations. |
| Diversity | Welcomes animals of every species. | Welcomes students and faculty of every origin and leaning. |
| Service | Provides information and up-close experiences to the public; protects endangered species, breeds animals, etc. | Provides education to students and links with the surrounding community and, depending on levels of online presence, serves a global learning community. |
Xavier is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the country and espouses a number of particular values including “Cura Personalis,” or care for the whole person. This means that the university pays attention to body, mind and spirit by emphasizing academic, spiritual, athletic and leisure foci as a first priority. The Cincinnati Zoo also makes the total welfare of the animals a first priority.
Another Jesuit value is “seeing God in all things.” This is what we encourage our students, faculty, and staff to do at all times, and it’s not difficult to do this when observing the magnificence of the zoo animals.
Maybe the I-75 exit 6 sign isn’t such a strange pairing after all.
[Sr. Nancy Linenkugel is a Sylvania Franciscan sister and chair of the department of Health Services Administration at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.]