The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 57

Animal Housing

that the journalist felt compelled to write
another article addressing the comments three
days later (hoffman, 2015a; hoffman, 2015b).
Comments listed in hoffman's (2015b) article
included, "life can be hard, but, it's easier now
for the majority of us than it has ever been.
grow a spine and face life without pharmaceutical or furry crutches" (para. 9), and "our
nation is raising a generation of over-coddled
weaklings who are going to get eaten in the
real world" (para. 10), among others. these
views may make productive discussions about
esa policies more difficult (dvm360 staff,
2016; hoffman, 2015b; usa today editorial
Board, 2015).

The Realities of Housing Animals on
Campuses. finally, even if esas are becoming
more common, providing spaces for accommodating esas can be difficult, as was discovered
when a freshman and his esa, a 95-pound

. . . the patchwork of federal
statutes applied on campuses
creates gaps in the coverage of
rights for the disabled at higher
education institutions . There are
multiple competing rights involved,
including those of the other
students, the university and the
animal itself, and making sense of
it all can be difficult.

pig, moved into a residence hall at the university of Washington (hoffman, 2015a). the pig
was unable to go up or down stairs, was afraid
of the elevator, and could not be washed adequately in the dorm showers, which led to an
odor problem (hoffman, 2015a). the esa was
forced to stay in the student's room all day and
use a litter box until the freshman moved to a
dormitory with a ramp, and then off campus
completely (hoffman, 2015a). after their departure, it was discovered that the esa had
caused a large amount of damage to the dorm
room (hoffman, 2015a).

cOncLUsIOn
With the potentially large number of incoming freshmen with mental illnesses, university administrators should pay heed to the
recent cases involving esas and their results
(Bewley, 2015; huss, 2012; national alliance
on mental illness, 2016a; national alliance
on mental illness, 2016b; powers, 2014; Von
Bergen, 2015; Watkins, et al., 2011). universities should create policies that allow for the accommodation of esas, but avoid making the
university liable for the actions of the animal
or handler (Bewley, 2015; powers, 2014; Von
Bergen, 2015). universities could use huD's
Discretionary pet rules (2011) as guidelines
for esa policies on campus (Bewley, 2015). for
example, disallowing students to leave their
esas unattended overnight in their dorm, requiring students to ensure that their esas are
clean and relatively quiet, and only allowing
the esa to enter certain designated common
areas are some commonsense approaches to
improve the lives of the students and animals
(Bewley, 2015; Discretionary pet rules, 2011;
hope, 2016).

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3