Can't go to class ... have to walk my dog

College can be tough on students. For many, it's the first time you've been away from family for extended periods. Then there are the classes, new friends, new challenges.

How about throwing a dog into the mix?

Would that help or hinder?

A recent New York Times article by Jacques Steinberg talks about Stephens College in Columbia, Mo.

That institution welcomes students and their pet pooches. So much so that they've renovated a dormitory — called Pet Central — with a kennel on the first floor staffed by work-study students.

With these efforts, Stephens is hoping to smooth the transition of some students who may be so anxious about leaving home or adjusting to college life that a stuffed animal will not be of sufficient comfort. They want the real thing.

Stephens joins a growing number of colleges putting out a welcome mat for pets. They include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Canton, which allow cats in some dorm rooms; and Eckerd College in South Florida and Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, which set aside rooms for students with dogs or cats and others who love animals so much they just want to live near them.

Dianne Lynch, the president of Stephens, predicted more colleges will embrace the concept.

“Colleges will begin to recognize that this is important to students,” she said, adding that in an increasingly competitive recruiting market for top students, becoming known as pet-friendly is another way for a college to differentiate itself.

Stephens, the article said, began allowing dogs and cats in specific dorms in 2003.

Some, though, think there is a down side to allowing pets in college dorms.

The article quotes Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, a psychiatrist, who worries that allowing a student to have a pet might slow the transition from child to adult and could mask serious problems such as depression.

And here is Maureen O'Connor's take on the article from Gawker.