College is a stressful time, and students need new options like therapy animals to help de-stress for the sake of being more successful. A Therapy Animal is an animal that is trained to provide comfort, aid, and make the life of the owner easier and happier. College students are expected to make good grades, join groups/organizations, have a social life, all while learning how to grow up and be an adult at the same time. Often leaving students over worked and stressed out. Research data determines the benefits therapy animals bring to people, but also people bring to animals (Douglas et al, 1-11). PhD individuals validates that animals bring multiple benefits to people or in this case college students (Bustad). Universities are starting to recognize the benefits therapy animals give to students by bringing in therapy animals during finals week. The students that used the therapy animals during finals week made higher grades than those who did not (Raymond). In other Universities like California State University, Long Beach, they have an established therapy animal program. In this program, there is medical documentation required, then entrance into the program. Everything is always documented and owners are responsible for their therapy animals. Each student part of the program can confirm through personal experience the benefits therapy animals bring to college students (“Therapy Animals Gain Popularity with College”). The issue that comes with having therapy animals is getting the legal documentation not only for the owner of the animal but also the university. Then there are still the unknown rules and regulations set in the fair housing act (“Consider Legal Aspects of Requests for Animals on Campus.”). I plan to provide my personal plan to fix this issue, and express importance of therapy animals on colleges/university campuses. College Students need therapy animals for the sake of being more successful in life.

The therapy animals have more benefits than risks when it comes to college students. In the article “The Health And Risks Of Pet Ownership.”, it lays out the benefits and the risks to owning a pet, and also it points out what to consider when getting a pet. Some of the benefits are: pets provide love and companionship, they give a sense of purpose, pets lower stress and blood pressure levels, and pets provide social benefits too. Some of the risks are for elderly people they can be tripping hazard, and if pets are not taken care of their bacteria can be dangerous. Some things to consider when getting a pet: is the person physically and mentally able to take care of an animal, do they have the financial means to take care of an animal, and size is very important when choosing a pet. The organization associated with this article is Harvard. In this article, they cite a credited Harvard professor, and this article was posted in a Harvard Health Letter (“The Health And Risks Of Pet Ownership.”). There are some important things to consider before getting a therapy animal, but the benefits outweighs the risk. Most college students don’t have to worry about falling due to an animal under his/her feet, but if not taken care of the bacteria can be a problem. Therapy animals have a wide range of benefits perfect for college students. College students are expected to do so much and therapy animals could help making this transition in to life a little easier by bringing them love and comfort also while lowering their blood pressure and stress levels. A group of PhD professionals that belong to the Delta’s Society discovered that animals have many benefits and that there wasn’t a lot of research done on this topic. They then took the old research and the current research and put together a serving platter of information on pets and their benefits for humans. The Foreword addresses,” To date, Studies have shown animal contact could be healthy, contribute to child development of nurturance and self-concept, promote dialogue among family members, children, people with disabilities, and lonely people, contribute to physiological well-being and improvement of select cardiovascular markers and reduce anxiety levels” (Bustard). This source provides researched data to determine some of the benefits pets bring people and ultimately college students. One of the writers from this work has a PhD in Veterinary Medicine and the other writer has a PhD in Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies. Coming from such well-respected researchers; it can be said that these benefits are undeniably important, and I believe the answer to college student being more successful. A well-respected cardiologist confirmed, “Perhaps most importantly, though, a pet can add real joy to any human life” (Hajar, 71). She reports animals have been very important to people since the beginning of time because of their therapeutic benefits and love they give. She goes on to state the medical benefits therapy animals possess, “Animals make people feel good – a pet can improve health, studies show. Pets can ease Loneliness, reduce stress, anxiety and depression, promote social interaction, encourage exercise and playfulness, and provide unconditional love and affection” (Hajar, 71). Therapy animals could not only bring love and a sense of purpose for a challenging time, but also teach students how to be more social and help with them figure out who they want to be. Therapy animals could help struggling college students find themselves and show them compassion through it. Therapy animals could help lower some of the mental health issues that sadly some college students fall victim to. This is a huge problem many universities/colleges face, and there are sadly not any options for it. The benefits therapy animals bring are endless I believe and are a true solution to college issues. 

There’s no doubt that therapy animals bring benefits to people, but people or in this case college students also bring benefits back to the therapy animals as well. In the article “What’s in it for the Companion Animal? Pet Attachment and College Students’ Behavior Towards Pets”, a research study examines the relationship between pets and their owners and their level of attachment, and the benefits for both the pet owner and the pet. In this study, they had over 500 people all different ages and ethnicities. All participants had at least a full-time job or were a full-time student. The study judged the level of care from essential and basic to luxury, and then the level of attachment. This article citied many sources. This article comes from Department of Psychology Wichita State University. One of the authors has a PhD from there, another is a vet and the other works for an animal non-profit. In this study was covered a wide range of people and levels of care. Also in this article, “Gantt, Newton, Royer, and Stephens (1966) found that dogs exhibited increased heart rate when a person entered the room without interacting with the dog but decreased heart rate when being petted” (Douglas et al, 1-11). This just shows when petting and loving a therapy animal that lowers their blood pressure as well as the person or in this case the college student’s blood pressure too. Also, I believe that college students or universities could help by helping more shelter dogs get more love and attention they need, and giving a philanthropy benefit to therapy animals.  

Some universities are finally acknowledging the benefits therapy animals bring to college students, and help them stay and be successful in four years. In the video “Therapy Animals Gain Popularity with College”, the very reputable May Lee reports about therapy animals and their effects on college campuses.  She visits California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). There she visits with different students to see how their therapy animal have helped them. She explains briefly what is an emotional support animal and their qualifications. She explains the qualifications a student must have to have an emotional support pet. Also, she looks at the program CSULB has put in place for students with emotional support pets. More universities need to establish programs like CSULB but understandably every university is different. In the news article “Campus Therapy Dogs Offer a Helping Paw to Stressed Students”, Universities like; Oklahoma State University and Kent State University bring in therapy dogs during very stressful times in the semester like during midterms and exams. They allow students to come to a certain location on campus to study and pet the dog or just take a break and play with the dogs. The students that came and interacted with the dogs made higher graders than the ones who didn’t. Many other universities and colleges have done something like this to help their students but in this news article Oklahoma State University and Kent State University were the only ones mentioned. This is a great start but there needs to be more universities and colleges and better established programs. From a preliminary study that examined the relationship strictly between college students and therapy animals; The study concludes, “Pet therapy may be a catalyst to establish new social relationships among college freshman and provide a bridge for the break in attachment from their previous supportive network” (Adamle, 547). The change is setting, finding a new support group all while figuring out the kind of person one wants to become, can be overwhelming and stressful. This makes some freshmen’s first experience in a university/college setting terrible and unsettling. This may cause students to reconsider their career path due to the uncomfortableness they experienced. Therapy animals can make this transition so much easier and less uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the reason there is not as many due to the legal written documentation, requirements and rules that are misunderstood and that are misinterpreted.

The main issue stated in the article “Consider Legal Aspects of Requests for Animals on Campus”, that come with having therapy animals is getting the legal documentation not only for the owner of the animal but also the university/college. Then there are still the unknown rules and regulations set in the fair housing act. For someone to have a therapy animal, they are going to need documentation stating the need for the animal.  Then they will need to take that documentation to their university to get clearance to have their therapy animal. The university then will have the task to make sure their resident hall can house a therapy animal, and they will need to make sure there aren’t any students with allergies to the therapy animal. If there are some issues during this process the university must deny a student their therapy animal, and all of this is due to the unclear rules and regulations in the fair housing act that all universities must follow.  This now opens universities to law suits and very angry students. This highlights the major problem with therapy animals and is the reason why more universities/colleges either do not have therapy animal programs or do not bring therapy animals in during stressful times. Also, the only way to start to get this problem solved is that the fair housing act would need to be brought up in congress and modified and probably added to. The only way this could happen is it talked about more and brought up to our law makers. Then after the different universities/colleges would need to raise funding to build or modify their resident hall to accommodate therapy animals or establish a location on campus for therapy animals. This might leave students at risk of having tuition and fees increase. Universities/colleges could instead of charging the students use donation money and other outlets to fund this project due to the benefits therapy animals not only bring to students but now the university too. The universities/colleges benefit by: the happiness it brings to the students, the lower stress levels it brings to a campus by helping students to adjust better, ultimately helping them stay for the next four years, and the most important helping students achieve better grade and be more successful in life. 

 For college students to be successful adults, universities don’t need to lower the work or standard yet provide better way to lower stress by having therapy animals. The benefits therapy animals bring students surpass the risk, but the issue is not with the risks of therapy animals the issue is with the legal matter of having and housing a therapy animal. I have created a plan to contest the issue with therapy animals. The first step in my plan is to have awareness brought to the legal issue with therapy animals to the people in congress. The people in congress would then deliberate and either change the fair housing act or create a whole new act/law that deal specifically with therapy animals regarding university/college housing and having therapy animals on campus. Then I would bring awareness to all the work done by congress and would challenge the universities/colleges to see what issue now arise like  money or space. The other issue is if students are allergic, so each plan and approach would be different throughout. Some universities/colleges may allow therapy animals in the classroom or just in a specific location on campus or just confined to owner’s dorm. Each plan/ procedure will be different based on the student body.  By establishing each plan and more therapy animals become more common on universities/colleges campuses; then student’s grades will rise, so they will feel less stressed, and then take on more to be more successful. Therapy animals could answer so many of universities/colleges problems, and provide some additional benefits to not only students, universities/colleges itself, but also therapy animals, and the world. College students should have therapy animals because they can be successful by feeling less stressed, causing their blood pressure to lower, and the whole time feeling loved and supported.  

Universities/Colleges ought to consider therapy animals to help students be the best while not being as stressed, and then students will be more successful in life.  The benefits that therapy animals bring have been validated by many well-respected PhD individuals. These benefits could solve so many of the universities/colleges problems and student personal problems all while helping students be better and more successful. The universities/colleges and students are not the only ones that benefit from therapy animals. The therapy animals themselves benefit from the relationship, and this could also help the world by taking more animals out of shelters and on the streets. Many universities/colleges have demonstrated that this can happen in one form or another. Each case is different but the result is the same when students have access at some point to a therapy animal, and this has shown to be successful by raising students grades and lowering their stress levels. The only issue is with the legal part of the equation. How housing is considered under the fair housing act making it difficult for some universities/colleges and students. My plan provides a solution to this problem, and it starts with congress. Then each university/college would then need to adapt to allow more students access to therapy animals.  Therapy animals provides the solution to universities/colleges problems, and they add to student’s success. 
