Therapy dogs ease stress for college students during finals

The perfect remedy to college finals stress? Puppy love.

On Tuesday, Pitt-Greensburg students gathered in the Fireside Lounge to hang out with a posse of pups — including a Dalmatian, beagle and sheepadoodle — from Youngwood Top Dog Services.

Therapy dogs have become increasingly popular on college campuses to bring happiness to students and faculty. Lauren Yoder, a senior at Pitt-Greensburg’s Hempfield campus, said the dogs help “relieve some stress.”

Senior McKenzie Huntebrinker echoed her sentiment.

“We just wanted to pet the dogs,” said Huntebrinker of Oak Harbor, Ohio. “A lot of students really miss their home pets, so this helps a lot.”

According to the American Institute of Stress, eight in 10 college students experience “frequent bouts” of stress.

For many students, stress is heightened during finals week, which is kicking into high gear at colleges and universities in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Students at the University of Pittsburgh, Pitt-Greensburg, Robert Morris and Point Park are completing their tests this week. Finals will begin next week at Seton Hill, Saint Vincent College, Penn State , Carlow, Duquesne, La Roche and Westmoreland County Community College.

At Carnegie Mellon and the Community College of Allegheny County, exams will start the week of May 9.

No student loan debt stress, just yet

As therapy dogs reassure many students in between their studies, college seniors won’t need canine comfort to combat student loan stress anytime soon.

Yet again, the Biden administration has paused federal student loan payments. Graduates’ payments are now frozen through Aug. 31 due to the coronavirus pandemic and state of the economy, according to The Associated Press.

Initially, payments were scheduled to resume May 1. Since March 2020, the Trump and Biden administrations have extended the payment pause six times.

Huntebrinker and Yoder plan to enter the workforce shortly after graduation, but Huntebrinker said the pause is “nice” nonetheless.

Over 43 million Americans owe the federal government $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, AP reports. That means the average borrower owes about $37,200.

Some college graduates and politicians have advocated for the cancellation of all or some student loan debt. During President Biden’s 2020 campaign, he said a minimum of $10,000 in loan debt “should be forgiven” per student.

This has yet to happen. During a Tuesday meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Biden indicated he is looking at options to forgive most or all student loan debt.

Yoder, from Lancaster, said she’s unsure whether student loan debt forgiveness is “realistic right now.”

Huntebrinker agreed.

“(Canceling student loans) would be nice, but I don’t really expect that,” she said. “I know what I got myself into when I got the loans out.”