Begin remaining steps once you have already received notice that your accommodation has been approved by Disability Resources.
All remaining steps occur within Housing & Residence Life. Please review the HRL ESA Agreement and contact them for more information about your next steps. Your animal may not join you on campus until Housing & Residence Life staff send notification verifying all requirements are complete and the animal is permitted in campus housing.
Direct questions regarding the remainder of this process to [email protected]
**Please note:
- Students whose request is denied are invited to meet with Disability Resources staff for further details related to the denial of their request. Students do reserve the right to appeal an accommodation decision, and to submit additional supporting documentation related to their request.
- Absent exceptional circumstances, DR attempts to provide a response to the ESA request within 30 business days of receiving information from a reliable professional provider.
- Only one Emotional Support Animal or service animal can reside in a campus housing unit (dorm or apartment).
- Disability Resources staff may review the need for ESA with the student annually.
- If Housing & Residence Life determines it is necessary to remove the ESA due to violations of Resident Responsibilities, Housing & Residence Life first consults with DR.
- Please review the UMN Animals on Campus Policy for more information. Disability Resources handles all accommodation requests on an individualized, case-by-case basis
- Disability Resources discourages paying individuals found on websites for certificates or template letters. As per the guidance document by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):
- "Some websites sell certificates, registrations, and licensing documents for assistance animals to anyone who answers certain questions or participates in a short interview and pays a fee.
- **In HUD's experience, such documentation from the internet is not, by itself, sufficient to reliably establish that an individual has a non-observable disability or disability-related need for an assistance animal".
If you have any additional questions about the housing accommodation request process at UMD, please contact [email protected]