Guest Column
WE NEED PETS ON CAMPUS
There's no reason why students can't own pets on campus.
How many OU students are animal lovers? I suspect that the majority of students love animals.
How many students have pets at their homes? Probably a great many.
How many students have pets on campus? With the exception of those who own fish, the answer is none. Yet, in Norman, 3,875 dog and cat licenses were sold from July, 1996 to October, 1997.
With the probable exception of some commuter students who live in non-university-owned housing, not one OU student was included in that number.
The reason is that administrators won't allow us to have any pets, except for fish. That needs to change.
The University Housing and Food Services Community Living Handbook states:
"Excluding fish in an aquarium (not to exceed 30 gallons), all pets (to include, but limited to, dogs, cats, laboratory rodents, snakes, ferrets, reptiles, etc.) are prohibited inside the residence halls, to include public and private areas.
"Guests are also prohibited from bringing pets inside the residence halls."
University-owned apartments are subject to the same restrictions. Penalties for breaking the ban range from a fine of $15 to a "disciplinary process."
To be sure, the administration has valid reasons to forbid certain pets in the residence halls. There would not be room to keep dogs and cats.
They would take up more space than we have to give them, and it costs money to repair the damage they can cause.
Furthermore, some people are allergic to them, and the messes they cause do create health hazards.
But parakeets and hamsters take little space and create little damage. Because they live in cages, their messes are more easily contained and the danger of health hazards is far less.
It's easier to protect people with allergies from parakeets, hamsters, and gerbils than it would be to protect them from dogs and cats.
Surely the administrators can let us keep such little pets in our rooms.
They should let the apartment residents keep dogs and cats. Because people don't live so closely together, and because the apartments in Yorkshire, Parkview, and Kraettli are bigger than residence hall rooms, the risks named in the handbook do not apply.
Many of the apartment residents have children, and children love pets. Since they may have to live in the OU apartments for as many as four to six years, it's unfair to demand that children do without the joys of pet ownership for years on end.
And students who don't have children may want pets because of the companionship pets provide. If you don't have a roommate, apartment living can be awfully lonely. Pets help alleviate that loneliness.
The problems that make it necessary to forbid such pets in the residence halls do not exist in the apartments. The only problem that exists--the damage such pets can cause--can easily be solved by requiring students to pay a $100 pet deposit.
My message to OU President David Boren and his fellow administrators is this: Please, let us have pets!
Instead of making a blanket rule forbidding all students to own pets in any form, allow us to have what we want, within reason.
Fish are cute, but they can't love you back. We want pets that can return our affection.
Kathy Green is a journalism senior.