Animal lovers and legal drinkers looking to live in the residence halls of SDSU have found a place to call home in the lower floors of Hansen Hall, as the pet and alcohol policy put into place last year continues in the new semester.

Last year, the decision was made to make Hansen Hall an “alcohol permitted” residence hall for people over 21 living on first and second floor east and allows residents to keep a pet on first and second floors of the building. 

Jeff Hale, director of Residential Life, said the department first allowed this decision because they wanted to acknowledge the fact that students are over 21 and should be allowed to drink if they so choose, but as social drinking. 

“They are trying to accommodate students who are juniors, seniors and grad students who are of age,” Hale said.

In order to have alcohol in a room, the resident must be 21 or over, and if they are drinking, the door must remain closed. Residents are only allowed to keep alcohol in the room in moderation, a keg of beer, for example, is not allowed. Alcohol is not permitted in the room if there are people who are underage present, Hale said.

To have a pet in the residence hall there are some rules that must be followed: pets must have proper vaccinations, dogs need to be 35 pounds or less and the student’s insurance needs to cover anything that could go wrong with the pet.

“This continues to be a pilot project, even though we are in our second year as a pilot,” Hale said. “So far this has been a successful decision because pets have not caused damages to rooms or noise complaints by neighbors because students have been responsible. This is all a process to try and make living on campus more attractive,” Hale said.

One student is a proponent of the policy is Sophia Conzemius who is a community assistant in Hansen Hall.

“Some students may have difficulty adjusting to college and having a pet with them helps them to adjust more gracefully, especially during the first couple weeks of class,” Conzemius said. She commented she likes the policy of allowing pets in the residence hall. 

At this point in the semester though, very few students have taken advantage of the opportunity to keep a pet in the hall.

“There are pets in the dorm, but not very many, only about five,” Conzemius. 

Compared to the total amount of residents living in Hansen being around 300, this is not very many at all, but so far the five pets seem to be a hit among the residents. According to Hale, there are only about 10 pets total between Hansen Hall and Meadows. 

“Most of the people have dogs as pets and they are cute and other residents enjoy seeing them walking around,” Conzemius said. 

Cassie Pospishil, a sophomore architecture major and Hansen resident, was not sure if she would like living there, but now she is happy with her decision glad because a lot of her friends live there. 

“I am never in the dorm and I have a very busy schedule, so a pet would not work out,” Pospishil said. “I don’t mind it [if others have pets] since I don’t have a pet allergy. If you want to take care of them, that’s fine, it’s their responsibility.”