Campus housing allows emotional support animals

Students who may need a service animal or emotional support animal are able to bring one to campus, as long as they meet the requirements outlined by legislation.

A housing act applied to the Fair Housing Regulation in October 2008 allows students who are diagnosed with certain conditions and have professional medical support to have an emotional support animal reside with them on campus. The act was implemented a couple of years later.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Fair Housing Act says that individuals with disabilities, or people who are over the age of 65, may have their animal with them in housing if it improves their quality of life.

Ernetta Fox, director of Disability Services at USD, said that in order to be considered for a support animal a student’s mental health issue must be considered a disability.

“Just having anxiety, depression or anything else does not qualify you for having an emotional support animal. Your anxiety, depression or other mental health issue has to rise to the level of it being a disability.”

There is a verification form the student’s physician or therapist completes that says the person has a disability and that they are being prescribed an emotional support animal as part of their therapy or treatment.

“We approve it or we don’t approve it depending on what verification comes back,” Fox said. “At that point, the student starts working with housing. It is kind of a two-step process.”

Once the student is approved through Disability Services, they then have a stack of paperwork they not only have to fill out, but that is sent to their doctor as well. This process is done with the director of University Housing.

There is additional paperwork the student’s roommates are required to fill out as well, saying that they are OK with living with an animal. Some people may have allergies or other issues, in which case housing would find a different place on campus for the student with the animal to live. The animal must always be on a leash, and not cause problems for anyone else in that space.

“If somebody has a dog that barks 24 hours a day, we have the ability to ask it them to leave, if it is causing stress for the other residents,” said Todd Tucker, the current director of University Housing.

At the moment, there are five emotional support animals on campus and one service animal.

“Service animals are completely separate from emotional support animals because they are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those are two separate apples and oranges,” Fox said.

Four paws aren’t man’s only best friend in this case. There are currently no regulations that say exactly what type of animal is allowed.

“Right now we have dogs, cats and rabbits on campus,” Tucker said. “Fish have always been allowed though, given that they are in a 10 gallon tank.”

The emotional support animal is strictly limited to housing and is not allowed anywhere else on campus because it falls under the Fair Housing Act.

“It has happened before, where someone tried bringing their animal to classes with them,” Tucker said. “It is not something we are used to, having these animals on campus because for so many years it was never allowed.”

Both Tucker and Fox said they feel that the process they have works well for students and more students are becoming interested in having animals in housing with them.

“It just depends on whether or not they go through the process of getting all of the documentation and information from their doctor that they need provided,” Tucker said.