Should Students Be Allowed To Bring Therapy Animals To School

Institutions with pet-friendly policies are seeing an uptick in students bringing dogs, cats, hamsters, reptiles and more to campus. Students say the animals help them cope with feet and stress.

When Carolynne Estrada was applying to colleges her senior year of high schoolhouse, her father died unexpectedly. She knew she had to attend a postsecondary institution that would allow her to bring the true cat her dad had given her.

"When I saw that Johnson & Wales accustomed me and that they would let me to bring my pet that my dad had given me that same year, information technology was genuinely the reason why I came to the school," said Estrada, now a senior at the university.

Estrada's cat, Ralph, is an emotional support beast and has lived with her on campus since freshman year. As a designated emotional support fauna, Ralph is welcome in whatsoever dorm on campus, though Estrada happens to live in a pet-friendly dorm, which also houses students with pet dogs, cats, chinchillas, hedgehogs, bunnies, hamsters and more. Some of these are registered as emotional support animals; others are only house pets students decided to bring along.

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Nicole Hebert, director of accessibility services at Johnson & Wales, works with students who have service and emotional support animals on campus. Since the pandemic struck in 2020, she said, there's been an increase in emotional back up animals on campus, which she attributes mainly to the stresses of returning after more than a yr of online learning.

"Students' transition to living abroad from habitation, I call back, is a footling more meaning this twelvemonth than for about first-twelvemonth college students," Hebert said. "To have that piece of home come up with them, I think, is incredibly helpful to them. And so what is a somewhat broken-hearted fourth dimension for immature people, that anxiety is a chip reduced by having that animal with them."

Since there isn't an official, nationwide registration database for emotional support animals, most requests for one must be accompanied by a letter from a certified mental wellness professional. At Johnson & Wales, emotional back up animals are only permitted in the educatee'due south assigned dorm, which can be any dorm on campus. If students desire to accept their support animals in public or common areas, they must get permission from accessibility services or residential life; working service animals tin can go anywhere on campus.

But any Johnson & Wales student can bring a pet to campus. In addition to Estrada's dorm, there are 3 other pet-friendly dorms on the Providence, R.I., campus. Co-ordinate to the campus guidelines, students are allowed to have "non-aggressive" and "approved" breeds of dogs that are over a year onetime and counterbalance less than 40 pounds, cats older than a year, "pocket-size caged mammals" such as hamsters and guinea pigs, and lizards and turtles that can live comfortably in a five-gallon tank. Non allowed: poisonous or endangered species, snakes, and animals "that have to be fed a alive creature for survival," according to the guide.

Each student is allowed to bring but one pet and must pay a $250 cleaning fee for the academic yr; emotional back up animals are free. Pets in the designated dorms are allowed in their owner's room simply not permitted to roam in the halls, common areas or other student rooms. They are also banned from all other campus buildings and from university transportation.

Nev Kraguljevic, managing director of residential life at Johnson & Wales, said that while there'south e'er been educatee interest in bringing pets to campus, it'south grown in recent years. At least 3 dozen institutions take established pet-friendly dorms, according to USA Today. Some have observed a postal service-pandemic uptick in pets on campus, including the State University of New York at Canton, Blaring University in Pennsylvania and Eckerd Higher in Florida, which all have pet-friendly dorm policies.

At Clarion, sophomores, juniors and seniors are permitted to live in ane of iii pet-friendly apartment buildings, which are role of a larger residential complex. Students are allowed to bring dogs under twoscore pounds, cats, amphibians and small reptiles; each person tin bring one large pet or 2 minor ones and must pay a $200 fee for the academic year.

Todd Spaulding, associate director of residence life and housing operations at Clarion, said the pet-friendly accommodations take always been popular, merely students have shown increased interest this year; very few apartments remain vacant.

"It's pretty popular, and we don't really have much event filling that area," Spaulding said. "Nosotros've never really had problems with whatsoever damages, similar dogs or cats destroying apartments or students not taking care of their pets. It's always been a good experience for usa so far."

At Eckerd College, kickoff-twelvemonth and transfer students may bring modest pets—including fish, hamsters and gerbils—at whatsoever time, only they must attend for at least ane semester before registering a larger pet, including a dog under forty pounds, a cat or a rabbit. Large pets cost $175 per year, while the small ones cost null.

Anne Wetmore, associate dean for student life at Eckerd, said the ii,017 students enrolled have registered 271 large and small animals as pets, merely she expects the number to grow adjacent semester. Additionally, she noted a slight increase in students with emotional support animals, which accept to be registered through the role of accessibility and crave a letter from a certified mental wellness professional.

SUNY Canton has established a "pet wing" in one of its residence halls, though dogs, birds, spiders and snakes are prohibited. Students with cats are responsible for paying for cleaning supplies to eliminate smells or stains. John Kennedy, director of residence life, said students are allowed one cat per person, with a maximum of two cats in one double dorm room. Limits on the number of smaller pets, including fish and hamsters, are determined on a example-by-example basis.

Students with emotional back up animals or working service animals—which are ordinarily dogs—can live in whatsoever dorm on campus but are encouraged not to live in the pet fly, Kennedy said. He noted that while interest in the pet fly has remained consistent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it proved especially helpful to students on campus terminal yr.

"The pet wing was the place to be in during COVID," Kennedy said. "At the elevation of the pandemic last year, I call up a lot of students who were lonely on campus were taking some or all of their classes remotely, and there wasn't much going on socially on campus. So I think it was really helpful for students to have a nonhuman roommate with them."

The growing demand amid students for pet-friendly dorms has spawned another tendency: a rise in students gaming the system to register a pet equally an emotional support animal. Some students pay coin to download a counterfeit alphabetic character, allegedly from a licensed health professional, that claims they qualify for an emotional support brute, said Christine Kivlen, banana professor of occupational therapy at Wayne State University.

"Students abusing the arrangement is really important, considering the definition of what an emotional support animal is and how important it is to take a qualified mental health professional determine if that's appropriate," Kivlen said. "Because I accept seen that in some cases where students really demand an animal for emotional support and they're really finding it much more than challenging considering of the increased number of students who are abusing that."

Kivlen, an expert on therapy domestic dog programs, is a strong proponent of colleges employing therapy dogs to aid all students readjust to in-person learning.

"It could be a actually smashing benefit as students transition and have a actually big change in routine in a short period of time," Kivlen said. "I am hopeful that the increased literature in this area tin can help more than individuals on campus implement programs and implement them the correct mode."

Students readily acknowledge the advantages of having a pet or emotional support animal with them on campus. Daisy Bagno, a educatee at Johnson & Wales, lives in ane of the campus's pet-friendly dorms with her emotional support true cat, Gomel.

"Schoolhouse definitely has me a little stressed, specially during studying for finals and all that," Bagno said. "Simply there'southward something most cats—they sense when yous're upset."

Austin Jones, a freshman at SUNY Canton, lives in the pet wing with his cat, Pumpkin, who he said brings him comfort.

"It'south added somebody else to just be with me," Jones said. "Bringing him makes it experience more like home, and information technology just feels good to take him around."

Viktoria Pierre and Taylor Cady, first-year students at SUNY County, likewise live in the pet wing. Pierre, who has ii betta fish and a hamster named Muffin, said information technology'south surprising how much the critters have boosted her mental health. She regularly talks to her fish near her mean solar day, she said.

"Sometimes when you're hither, you're away from domicile and you experience kind of disconnected from people," Pierre said. "But when you have a footling pet with you information technology just makes you lot feel similar, 'I'm not alone.'"

Cady said her cat, Hemlock, helped her develop a routine because she had to wake up at 8:00 every forenoon to feed him, which in turn helped lower her stress.

"Just him being effectually makes me very happy," Cady said. "His mannerisms and everything that he does makes me happy and helps me feel better whenever I'yard down."

For Estrada, the Johnson & Wales senior, Ralph the cat helped her mourn her dad while also giving her a routine, which forced her to get upwardly each day.

"I call up he helped me during that freshman year when I was grieving my dad," Estrada said. "I don't think I could be here by myself. He makes me have to exist responsible for something."

(This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nicole Hebert'southward proper noun.)

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/11/12/more-students-bring-pets-campus-emotional-support

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