Campuses are seeing a rise in accommodation requests of all kinds. One of the most notable of these is housing accommodation requests for emotional support animals (ESAs), also commonly called assistance, companion, or comfort animals. ESAs broadly refer to animals who provide their caretakers with comfort and relief from the impacts of mental health disabilities by virtue of the animal’s nature and presence, without specialized training. The Fair Housing Act defines and protects ESAs as a reasonable housing accommodation, including within campus housing environments.
This resource is part of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Initiatives in Higher Education Resource Center.
When EAB first examined this issue in 2013, our research found that requests for ESA accommodations were rare. In 2019, of the 66 student affairs leaders who responded to EAB’s survey on ESA accommodations, 98% of administrators have seen a slight or significant increase in the number of ESA requests in the past five years. No respondents indicated that the volume of these requests has stayed the same or slightly decreased.
What is driving the increase in ESA accommodation requests? How can campuses cope?The complexities of ESAs require a unified institutional approach, robust policies, and clear processes to manage their impact on the campus environment. Without this infrastructure, institutions are vulnerable to legal action when a request for accommodation is mishandled, risk wasting staff time and resources on unsubstantiated accommodations, and make it more difficult for those with substantiated needs to thrive on campus.
While institutions increasingly recognize the immediate…