College Students Pose Challenge for Census

ABC  News on Campus reporter Xorje Olivares blogs: April 1 is officially National Census Day, the day the U.S. Census Bureau has set for completed forms to be sent back. So college students who may be missing the deadline have another task to add to their to-do lists: Sandwiched between study sessions, exams, and end-of-semester searches for jobs and internships is filling out the census form. That means you, the college student, not your parents. Eun Kim, a public information officer with the Bureau, admitted that this demographic is actually one of the hardest to count during the Census period. Students have not dealt with the form before, and they often either do not acknowledge it, or they leave it up  to Mom and Dad to fill out. But the Census is intended to be a snapshot of America, of what the country looks like demographically on or about April 1. So parents listing children who are not living at home currently risk their being counted twice. Students who live on campus – in dormitories, residence halls, fraternity houses or sorority homes –  are given an Individual Census Report.Those who live off-campus in apartment complexes or rented homes must fill out a form that accounts for all the residents. International students and non-citizens should also complete their Census forms because they physically reside in the country at the time of questioning.  ”A lot of these people are very young,” Kim said about the students. “The biggest thing is to make people aware of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.” The Census is mandated by the Constitution. And information gathered by Census forms will determine how more than $400 billion of federal money is distributed, including funds appropriated to universities, Kim added. It also influences congressional representation. “For a college student, it’s hard to see that immediate impact,” Kim said. “So we’re trying to explain it in ways for them to understand.” To raise awareness within the college community this year, the Bureau’s Boston region started the Census on Campus initiative, which has formally reached out to dozens of schools and thousands of students in the Northeast over the past few months. Although the initiative does not have a set budget of its own, each of the Bureau’s 12 regions received federal funds to rouse community members, including students. The money has been used for promotional Census materials like baseball caps, drawstring bags, buttons, print and television advertisements, and public events. The Bureau also paid for 13 vehicles (one national vehicle and 12 regional ones) to travel around the country advocating for the questionnaire in its Portrait of America Road Tour. Each vehicle has a name: The national one is named ‘Mail it Back,’ while the Dallas regional vehicle is ‘Take 10.’ It only takes 10 minutes to answer the form’s 10 questions. “What we’re trying to do this turnaround is make sure that we’ve reached out to some of the universities and colleges at an earlier point in the process,” Kim said. “Earlier outreach efforts hadn’t been done before.” Not all schools nationwide are officially included in the Census on Campus initiative. Yet, with the help of the Bureau, some institutions and their students, like at the University of Texas at Austin, have held rallies and other informational sessions to educate students on how to correctly fill out their Census forms and return them promptly. “It’s really simple, and a little bit goes a long way,” said Uwana Akpan, UT senior and Census rally organizer. Akpan, along with several  other university organization members, put together a tabling event in the center of campus, with guest speakers like Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin), on Feb. 9. Unfortunately, the turnout was lower than  expected, Akpan admitted. “I just wish there was a constant large number of students there,” she said. “They were just there between passing periods.” To continue in their efforts, the student organizers decided to hold block-walks in heavily student-populated areas to distribute additional information. UT senior Gerardo Garcia received the material at his Austin apartment this past weekend but said he had no use for it. While back home in San Antonio for Spring Break in mid-March, the 22-year-old’s family included him in their form, which the Bureau highly discourages. “I figured what was the point [of doing my own form] since I’m  robably going to move back in with them after graduation,” Garcia said. While Garcia is probably not the only student in this particular enumeration situation, Kim said the Bureau was hoping to alleviate any  sort of confusion by posting several guides online. “Well, we’re trying to reach out to everybody,” Kim said. “It’s an outreach effort, definitely, but it’s also part of an ongoing effort.”