Most students leave their pets at home when traveling to college, while others bring their pets with them for emotional support or service needs. While these pets have unique needs, they can aid in making a student’s college journey slowly feel like home itself.
The Drake University “Service and Assistance Animals and Residence Code of Conduct” policy prohibits all pets in the residence hall except fish in residence halls. Service animals, which are trained to perform tasks for an individual with disability, are permitted. Emotional Support Animals can be approved as a reasonable accommodation for students with documented disability, but are restricted to university housing and require prior approval.
Joy Clark is in her second year studying occupational therapy and is a doctoral candidate. Clark has an emotional support animal and described her experience as “working just like a team” because of her routine of having “all my classes in one place” and taking care of her ESA at the same time.
“We’ve only been working as a team — this is our fourth week. So we’re still making lots of mistakes, but she does good,” Clark said, about her emotional support animal.
Clark reflects on commands that are applied with the concept of boundaries, where Clark’s ESA is learning when she’s on break and when she’s on the job.
“She’s pretty responsive to voice commands, which means I can let her run and get energy out,” Clark said.
Senior Ava Basso is double-majoring in business law and marketing. She has a service dog. She describes her experience as “relatively easy” based on the fact that she has been “doing it since senior year of high school, so you definitely fall into a routine in order to take care of a dog.”
As someone who takes 19 credit hours and takes care of her dog, Cheddar, Basso has found that Cheddar is a “really routine-oriented dog. He has a lot of potty breaks, a lot just, you know, zoomy breaks.”
“We do a lot of enrichment kibble games, so it keeps him mentally stimulated and entertained. Things like that,” Basso said. “So it’s just kind of building around what he is clearly comfortable and okay with.”
According to U.S. News, this policy of allowing ESAs in residence halls has grown based on the need to reduce student stress. Drake offers pet-friendly housing and emotional support accommodations.
Thalia Theibault is studying health sciences with a minor in psychology. She is also a clinical medical staff member, mainly for occupational therapy. She describes her experience as difficult based on the fact that she “wakes up around 6.” Thiebault tries to balance taking care of her dog, Lottie, and maintaining her schedule.
“I don’t want her to be lonely and think that I abandon her, so I see her in between classes as much as I can,” Theibault said.
Students have to manage a service or emotional support animal’s needs with the academic and social responsibilities by making time for play and ensuring financial stability for vet bills, food and supplies.
“She was rescued from an abusive situation, so she’s obviously a little nervous towards people,” Theibault said. “I recused her two months ago, so we’re pretty new to each other still.”
Some students leave their pets behind when they go to college. First-year student M’kali Ferguson, who takes care of a pet at home, is studying actuarial science and psychology.
Ferguson believes that it is “taxing, because you have to take care of a pet; like having to take them on a walk every morning, having to get food for them, which adds another bill on your plate,” Ferguson said. “Emotional comforting with a sense of home. It’s like a double-edged sword.”
