Service Animal Policy
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a service animal is defined as "any animal individually trained to work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including, but not limited to, guiding individuals with impaired vision, alerting individuals to an impending seizure or protecting individuals during one, and alerting individuals who are hearing impaired to intruders, or pulling a wheelchair and fetching dropped items". Service animals may accompany a person with a disability everywhere on campus. If there are any questions as to whether an animal qualifies as a service animal, a determination will be made by the Office Disability Services.
In compliance with the ADA, service animals are welcome in all buildings on campus and may attend any class, meeting, or other event. Disabled students desiring to use a service animal on campus must contact Disability Services to register as a student with a disability, at which point staff will evaluate the disability and recommend any additional accommodations appropriate to the functional limitations of the disability.
Requirements of service animals and their owners include:
- Dogs must be licensed in accordance with county regulations and wear a vaccination tag.
- Animals must be in good health.
- Animals must be on a leash at all times.
- The owner must be in full control of the animal at all times.
- The owner must provide Disability Service staff information as to how the animal accommodates for their disability.
Reasonable behavior is expected from service animals while on campus. The owners of disruptive and aggressive service animals may be asked to remove them from college facilities. If the improper behavior happens repeatedly, the owner may be told not to bring the service animal into any facility until they take significant steps to mitigate the behavior.
Cleanliness of the service animal is mandatory. Consideration of others must be taken into account when providing maintenance and hygiene of service animals. The owner is expected to clean and dispose of all animal waste.
