The Justice Department has sued the University of Nebraska-Kearney and its regents and employees for allegedly “denying reasonable accommodation requests by students with psychological or emotional disabilities seeking to live with emotional assistance animals in university housing.” [Disability Law]
More/update: Inside Higher Ed.
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And you thought that dorms were filthy and unsanitory now.
Wait until the bacteria and viruses arrive from the ever accummulating feces and urine of bogus service pit bulls and monkeys.
College life can be stressful enough, and dorm life is noisy and overcrowded.
Anyone who has is so emotionally or psychologically fragile that they need a service animal, should just go ahead and get an off campus apartment.
Aha, but the students want to pay the cheaper dorm rate, and get the benefit of the off campus apartment.
As the old saying goes, just follow the money.
Have you guys actually been to college? Have you lived in a dorm?
A well-trained dog is a whole lot neater, cleaner, quieter, and politer than the typical college freshman dorm resident. The dog is sometimes more studious as well.
There are lots of things to complain about in life. A service dog in a dorm isn’t one of them.
Asdfasdf, I do voluntary work as a Disability Services Coordinator for a large campground in the summer. The campground has a no pets rule for a very good reason. With upwards of 10,000 guests, if everyone brought their pets, we would soon have a health and safety nightmare. The thing is “emotional assistance animals” are NOT service dogs. A service dog is highly trained and rigorously chosen for temperament and flexibility in strange environments. I have seen people bring rats, chihuahuas, iguanas, chinchillas, cats, yorkies, and some strange marsupial in a bag etc. and a note from their psychiatrist and try to pass these obvious pets as service animals. Until last year we had to let them in, and deal with the attendant issues (including an attack on a child). This last summer, finally, thankfully, we were able to turn these away and limit it to genuine service animals.
I have a friend who is caring for an ’emotional/psychological well-being’ service animal for another friend while the owner is away on a two year foreign placement.
That led me to wonder how vital the service animal is to the owner, since she is doing without it for the two years of her contracted (and well remunerated) overseas employment.
I say we just make it socially acceptable for these people to carry their childhood “blankie” with them. I really don’t see the difference.