A big increase in the number of students asking to bring animals to campus prompted Washington State University to adopt a policy on service and support animals.
WSU has always followed federal requirements, but hadn’t formally adopted its own policy until this spring.
“I think the university felt they needed a policy to clarify and address what’s reasonable and what’s not,” said Meredyth Goodwin, director of the Access Center at WSU.
Service animals are dogs or miniature horses trained to perform specific tasks for people with disabilities.
Emotional support animals – also called comfort or therapy animals – help students address a mental health condition or emotional disorder. Students who want to bring their emotional support animal into a dormitory need documentation from a health care provider, and for the most part they’re not allowed in classrooms or in public buildings on campus.
Goodwin said when she started working at WSU in 2011, the Access Center had four requests for emotional support animals that year. “Now we have two or three a week,” she said, adding, “this is not unique to WSU. This is at universities across the nation.”
The rise in requests for emotional support animals reflects a nationwide increase in mental health concerns among college students. A 2018 report from the American College Health Association found that 63 percent of students surveyed had experienced overwhelming anxiety in the previous 12 months, while 42 percent said they had been so depressed it was difficult to function.
WSU’s Office for Equal Opportunity helps the university maintain compliance with service animal regulations. Daniel Records, senior compliance coordinator there, said the office will develop online and in-person training for faculty and staff now that the new policy governing service and support animals is in place.
“If someone is bringing an animal on campus, university employees are allowed to ask two questions: ‘Is this animal needed due to a disability?’ And ‘What task is the animal trained to perform?’” Records said. “Part of the training will be helping people walk through that scenario.”
The university’s Access Center handles requests for emotional support animals, though the office of Housing and Residential Life has the final say.
Goodwin, the director at the Access Center, said the requests typically are for dogs and cats, though, “We do have requests for animals such as guinea pigs, other types of rodents like hamsters, hedgehogs, ferrets, bearded dragons and snakes. Whatever the student believes is the animal that provides them the most comfort.”
She said requests are handled on a case by case basis, but in general the size of the animal is a determining factor in whether it can be accommodated.
So, big dogs have been turned down. A pig was a “no.” But, said Edwin Hamada, director of the office of Housing and Residence Life, his office said “yes” to a boa constrictor – when it was determined that it was a small boa, topping out at 4 feet. “If it was a giant snake, I think we probably would have said it was not appropriate in such a small footprint,” he said.
Hamada said roommate disputes about living with someone else’s emotional support animal are likewise handled as they arise. There have been a few occasions where one or the other party moved out.
“We try to work out a resolution that’s appropriate and palatable to both parties,” he said, adding, “We haven’t had many issues, and when we do we find a resolution pretty quickly.”
