Service Animals

Employees with disabilities are permitted to bring a service animal to campus to provide assistance to them in connection with their disability. Requests to bring a service animal to campus should be made in advance to Human Resources. The employee making the request should be prepared to describe what work or task the service animal has been trained to perform. Pets and emotional support animals are not permitted at work. Rhodes reserves the right to deny an employee permission to bring a service animal to work if one or more of the following situations exist: 

• The service animal is not under the control of the employee, and the employee does not take effective action to control the animal within a reasonable period of time under the circumstances.
• The service animal is not housebroken. For purposes of this policy, “housebroken” means that the service animal is trained to relieve its waste in an outdoor area or, if the animal cannot be taken outdoors through reasonable efforts by the employee, then in some designated indoor area that does not pose a sanitation risk to any persons on Rhodes premises.
• The service animal otherwise poses a risk to the health or safety of people or other service animals. In determining whether a service animal poses a risk to the health or safety of people or other service animals, Rhodes will make an individualized assessment based on objective indications to ascertain the severity of the risk. Such indications include but are not limited to:
  • External signs of aggression, such as growling, biting or snapping, baring its teeth, or lunging; or
  • External signs of parasites on the service animal (e.g. fleas, ticks), or other external signs of disease or bad health (e.g. diarrhea or vomiting).