Service Animal Information

What is a service animal? 

A service animal is a dog (or in some cases a miniature horse) that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other qualified disability.

What do service animals do?

The work or task that the service animal performs must be directly related to the individual's disability. Examples include assisting individuals with low vision and alerting individuals who are hearing impaired. Service animals may also be needed to pull a wheelchair, retrieve items such as medicine or a telephone, recognize and assist during seizures, and prevent or interrupt compulsive or destructive behavior.

What areas can my service animal access?

Service animals are allowed in all places of public accommodation. This includes campus buildings, residence halls, and anywhere on campus they are needed to assist an individual with a disability to participate in educational programs and other campus activities.

Service animals must be under effective control at all times and cannot harm or threaten others in the campus community including faculty, staff, students and guests.

Consistent with federal and state law, a service animal may be prohibited from university facilities or programs if the animal's behavior or presence poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others. The animal may also be excluded from areas where its presence fundamentally alters the nature of a program or activity, if the animal is disruptive, if its presence would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others, or if it substantially interferes with the reasonable enjoyment of housing or public accommodation by others.

• Service animals must be housebroken and cleaned up after.
• Medical documentation establishing the need for a service animal is not required.
• Any animal living on campus must provide an updated vaccination report.

What do I need to do to bring my service animal to campus?

Although an accommodation request does not have to be made to have a service animal on campus, it is suggested to request a housing accommodation to ensure that you have an optimal living environment to accommodate an animal.

If a student with a service animal would like to receive additional accommodations, documentation and an Accommodation Planning Meeting will be required to determine the appropriate accommodations.