The number of ESA’s has increased at Arkansas State University, with around 80 registered with Access and Accommodation Services for this semester. 

“I started here in 2017,” said Blake Walker, associate director of Access and Accommodations Services. “There were not very many (ESA’s) on campus when I started, probably less than a dozen.”

Walker added that the number of ESA’s over the years has “been a steady increase,” and picked up more after COVID-19. He added that the destigmatization of mental health has also contributed to the increase. 

“Being a student is just generally much more stressful than it used to be,” Walker said. “Current students lived through a pandemic, are living through economic crises, there’s just a lot of external stressors and being a student of itself is not easy.”

An emotional support animal is not the same as a service animal, as a service animal is trained to provide a specific task for their owner’s disability. An ESA provides comfort to their owner. 

In order to get an ESA on campus, students must be registered with Access and Accommodation Services, as an ESA is an accommodation for a disability. Students must provide documentation from a qualified healthcare provider, such as a therapist, social worker or psychiatrist. 

Students then provide basic information about the animal, such as a description and a picture. Dogs and cats are required to be up-to-date on the recommended vaccinations. 

After the accommodation is approved, Access and Accommodation Services informs University Housing of the approval. 

“It’s not intended to be a very difficult process,” Walker said. “If we make it difficult for students it’s difficult for us.”

Alexx Weaver, a junior biotechnology/evolution ecology organismal biology double major from Lonoke, Arkansas, said she got her emotional support dog, an English Springer named Berkley, before she went to college.

“College is stressful,” Weaver said. “I was like ‘I think that might be a good idea.’ All my friends have dogs, so I was like ‘it’d be a benefit for everybody.”

Dakia Pope, a junior elementary education major from Chicago, has an Aussiedoodle named Cody. He helps Pope with her anxiety. Pope said she got Cody after her therapist recommended she get an animal.

“He’ll first smell me and just try to see like, ‘Okay, what am I to do?’ And then he’ll come curl up right under me,” Pope said.  “If I’m in the shower, he’ll sit everywhere I go, he’s there. So it’s to let me know that no matter what kind of day you’re having, I’m always here. That’s what makes me feel the safest because, I can walk to the closet and I can just hear him behind me.”

Raven Goldwood, a first-year general studies major from Selmer, Tennessee, has an emotional support cat named Thomas Jones, using the full name only when he’s in trouble. 

“I have major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder and Thomas helps with that. He helps keep me grounded,” Goldwood said. “If I’m having a bad day, Thomas cuddles up next to me and it’s like he knows something is wrong. If I’m laying down, he’ll often find his way to my side. It’s really nice to have this little creature almost instinctively knowing that you need comfort and then trying to provide it.”

Those living with emotional support animals said they have had to change parts of their lives to accommodate them.

Katy Willis, a senior psychology major from Blue Springs, Missouri, rearranged her room to accommodate her emotional support cat Apollo. She moved her bed in order for Apollo’s cat tower to be in front of the window. She also has his bed and some cat tunnels under her bed.

“It made the way we jive together in the room a lot better because he has his space,” Willis said.

Pope said she has to take extra care to manage her time to take care of Cody.

“That can be stressful, because you don’t want him to feel like you’re just always busy and I have enough time to play with him or give him some brain stimulation,” Pope said.

Students with ESA’s said the process for approval was easy.

“It was really fast,” Pope said. “Just gotta send shot records, it was a smooth process.”

Other students think there are some flaws with the approval process. Goldwood, who was eight months pregnant when she was getting approved for Thomas, said she couldn’t handle the stress of being separated from him and thought the process was too slow.

“If you don’t have an ESA, then you don’t understand the anxiety that comes with being separated,” Goldwood said. “Legally, a registered ESA can’t be denied, but the application process takes time and you’re not supposed to have yours with you here while waiting for the approval. So while you will get approved, you’re still expected to leave your ESA somewhere else. I didn’t have anywhere else to leave Thomas. I went into labor and came home to a violation notice because an inspection was done while I was gone and Thomas was found. I fully expected that and we got everything situated, but it was highly stressful.”

Willis said having an emotional support animal provides her with a sense of community.

“’I’ve had a lot of really good interactions with some of the other ESA owners in the Honors LLC and they’re all wonderful and sweet and so are their animals,” Willis said. “So I feel like Apollo has little besties.”

Walker said as mental health continues to get more attention from legislators and healthcare providers, the role of emotional support animals and other accommodations will continue to change. 

“How people are affected by their disabilities changes,” Walker said. “The laws are intentionally vague and we just kind of adapt as time goes on.”

Categories: News