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But interesting....from the NY Times <br><h1>For Law Students With Everything, Dog Therapy for Stress</h1>
<h6 class="byline">By <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/timothy_williams/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Timothy Williams" class="meta-per">TIMOTHY WILLIAMS</a></h6>
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Black’s Law Dictionary? Check. <BR>
An Introduction to Legal Reasoning? Check. <BR>
Small, cute dog? Check. <BR>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/y/yale_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Yale University." class="meta-org">Yale</a> Law School, renowned for competitiveness and its <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the U.S. Supreme Court." class="meta-org">Supreme Court</a>
justices, is embarking on a pilot program next week in which students
can check out a “therapy dog” named Monty along with the library’s
collection of more than one million books. <BR>
While the law school is saying little so far about its dog-lending
program, it has distributed a memo to students with the basics: that
Monty will be available at the circulation desk to stressed-out students
for 30 minutes at a time beginning Monday, for a three-day trial run.
<BR>
“It is well documented that visits from therapy dogs have resulted in
increased happiness, calmness and overall emotional well-being,” Blair
Kauffman, the law librarian, wrote in an e-mail to students. <BR>
The school is not saying what sort of dog Monty is; what happens to him
when school is out of session; or how Monty himself may be kept from
becoming overstressed with all his play dates. <BR>
Sebastian Swett, 26, a second-year student at the law school, said he
had signed up for a session with the dog, but does not necessarily think
that it will relieve all the pressures that come with being a student
at Yale. “I don’t think its going to solve anybody’s anxiety problems,
but it’s certainly nice to play with a dog for half an hour.” <BR>
Monty, according to the memo to students, is hypoallergenic and will be
kept in a nonpublic space inside the library, presumably away from those
who don’t much like dogs. <BR>
“We will need your feedback and comments to help us decide if this will
be a permanent ongoing program available during stressful periods of the
semester, for example, during examinations,” the note to students
reads. <BR>
A handful of other universities offer similar services, including the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_wisconsin/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about University of Wisconsin" class="meta-org">University of Wisconsin</a> at Oshkosh. <BR>
Yale Law School has kept its dog-lending plan so quiet that some faculty members were not even aware of it. <BR>
“I’m surprised to hear of it,” said John Witt, a professor who was
awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship last year for a
project on the laws of war through American history. “I’ve always found
library books to be therapeutic. But maybe that’s just me.” <BR>
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