Some Colleges Accepting Pets -- No Need For Them To Apply

Students say being around them has a calming affect, makes them to laugh and eases homesickness. No, they're not talking about the newest designer drug but a furry friend who, at some colleges, is allowed take in dorm life with its owner.

The New York Times reports from Stephens College in Missouri, which has seen a 20 percent increase in students requesting to bring their pets with them to school. The college complies -- and is even fixing a dorm nicknamed Pet Central for human/animal coeds.

Students attest that having a pet at school can ease the transition from home to college life. Colleges are beginning to agree with that notion -- campuses that allow pets range from Stephens to MIT to tiny Eckerd College in Florida.

The Times has more on the trend, and how it might make some schools more attractive to potential students:

While about a dozen colleges have explicit policies permitting pets of some kind -- Eckerd even allows snakes, provided they are "less than six feet long and nonvenomous" -- [Stephens College President Dianne] Lynch predicts that that figure will soon rise.

"Colleges will begin to recognize that this is important to students," she said, adding that in an increasingly competitive recruiting market for top students, becoming known as pet-friendly is another way for a college to differentiate itself.

True to form, Stephens and other colleges do not hesitate to bar pets from campus should they elicit noise complaints. Some schools even established Pet Councils to process issues. There's also the lingering problem of pets being abandoned on campus once the school year lets out, as Fox News reported in 2009.

What do you think? Would you bring your pet to college? Leave a comment with your opinion.

Comments

[Clay Dunn-Roberts]

03:22 PM on 06/08/2010

Colleges should let the newest designer drugs in too! :(

[SF TKF]

10:44 AM on 06/08/2010

This was true at Hampshire twenty years ago. It was great. A lot of colleges also now have pets that belong to the entire dorm or hall (we had an offical cat in my dorm; it belonged to one of the profs, but pretty much lived in our stack).

[Debbie338]

10:39 AM on 06/08/2010

I'm a veterinarian in a college town, and I can attest to the large numbers of abandoned pets left in apartments after the spring semester. Many students will move out and just leave the animal locked inside, apparently not caring whether it's found before it dies or not.

Of course, these kids learn that behavior at home, so the parents must bear some blame, too.

[PeachyyK]

08:46 AM on 06/08/2010

It is very true that pets have a calming effect on students. But I also feel the student needs to be mature enough to know not to go party 24 hrs a day and leave the pet alone. Maybe colleges need to introduce coursework that integrates the positive effect pet ownership can have on maturity levels and responsibility- then those can be paralleled with ethics and maybe even the social responsibility of companies.

hmm, I feel like I'm on to something :)

[AxelDC]

02:36 PM on 06/08/2010

I took care of my cat from age 5. It's true that I had parental supervision, but I knew better than to treat her that way when I was in Kindergarten. I was the primary caregiver to her until I left for college, when I had to leave her home. She lived to be 18 years old, so she was not at all neglected.

I would have loved to take her to college with me, and she probably would have loved all the attention. I couldn't imagine abandoning her, but vet bills might have been a problem if she had gotten some geriatric illness.

[Tulka2]

02:00 AM on 06/08/2010

If you are in college and sharing an house, consider adopting an old dog. If some one person is responsible, the whole house can enjoy an old dog. They are trained, are great cuddlers and you can give them a year or two which is better than they would get at the pound. No one adopts them and that's so sad because old dogs are just about perfect dogs.

[mapleaforever]

12:41 AM on 06/08/2010

Lions and tigers and bears -- oh my!!

[KingCujo]

11:05 PM on 06/07/2010

Didn't want a pet when in college, but wish more hotels and airlines were pet-friendly now.

[Barbara Saunders]

10:54 PM on 06/07/2010

At Stanford, I certainly enjoyed the chickens (permitted), rabbits (wild), cat (illegally kept by the Resident Assistant charged with enforcing rules like no pets), and husky (illegally kept by a former student illegally living in the house)! Ah ... the simple days of the 1980s, when surveillance was minimal.

[PurpleLove08]

10:31 PM on 06/07/2010

Freaking awesome.

[tullydad]

10:16 PM on 06/07/2010

Truly a double-edged sword. My college allowed pets. I brought my dog, and we had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, people took advantage. The policy wasn't there for people to adopt animals while in school; it was there for people to bring their animals from home. What we ended up with was a bunch of hippies adopting animals they knew their parents would never allow. Which resulted in all sorts of mayhem, especially at times when the college closed.

[Jackie Donnelly]

09:28 PM on 06/07/2010

Get a stuffed animal...Who needs to be back at the dorm walking a pooch when there is studying and fun to be had

[AxelDC]

02:44 PM on 06/08/2010

Why does it have to be a dog? A dog is one of the most demanding pets you could chose, just a step ahead of a child on the needy scale.

A cat is much easier to care for and there is no need to be home at a specific time. Gerbils, fish, crabs and birds need even less attention. As long as you remember to feed them and clean their shelter, they should be fine.

A dog would be a bad choice for a college student, unless you really want the protection it can provide.

[kareemachan]

09:00 PM on 06/07/2010

My kid's college will only allow animals that can stay totally submerged for 24 hrs - in other words, fish. It would have been nice if her cat (named Tenchi Buyou for two obliviously nice anime characters) could have gone with her, and he'd have made the perfect dorm cat, being totally sociable - give him catnip and pettings and he's yours forever - or until he hears the sound of his kibbles being poured into his bowl! He sleeps on her bed every night when she's home, and I know she misses having him around.

[fem56]

08:32 PM on 06/07/2010

That puppy is really cute but he does deserve to have a life beyond a dorm room. I assume he is not allowed to run free. I am a big believer in having a pet for their well being as well as our own.

[martiniandabotoxchaser]

08:10 PM on 06/07/2010

Being locked up a college dorm room all day can't be a great life for a dog.

[Barbara Saunders]

10:56 PM on 06/07/2010

As opposed to being locked up in a house or city apartment all day? Frankly I'm more concerned for humans locked up in offices all day.

[AxelDC]

02:45 PM on 06/08/2010

There are lots more pet choices than dogs. I wouldn't want a dog in a dorm, but a cat might work.

[guerline04]

07:49 PM on 06/07/2010

I think that's wonderful. I would've loved to have my baby with me. As for the a holes who abandoed their pets at school they are disgusting humans. Just like the people who left their pets tied up to drown in katrina. I didn't feel sorry for those people at all. Yuck