An International Student Fills Out His First U.S. Census Form
April 8th, 2010 at 9:03 am By Robert Woo
Photo courtesy of U.S. Census
We thought students tended to be indifferent to the Census. Well, the truth may be that they haven’t had the chance to respond yet. It now seems that group residences, such as college dorms, may be running on different Census schedules.
Today when I woke up I got the following email from my Residential Assistant (RA):
One final reminder for Census 2010!!!
- What: Census 2010 for on-campus students
- Where: Campus Center Atrium 2nd floor
- Date: Wednesday, April 7
- Time: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
- Who: You!!! All on-campus students are required by-law to participate in this census including international students.
- Important Clarifications: Your parents/guardians do not count you on their census at home…you are counted where you are living on April 1…which is Macalester College!
- Other: It’ll take you all of 5 minutes (or less!)!
FREE TREATS to everyone for filling out your Census form!!!
I was thrilled at the clarity and urgency in this email, and of course, the free treats. At noon I walked upstairs to our Campus Center and saw several tables, each assigned to a specific residential hall. There were several baskets containing finished forms on the tables, and it seemed nearly half of the forms had been filled out by that time.
An envelope was handed to me by a lady working for the Census Bureau, and I saw my name, hall name and room number typed on it. When I opened the envelope I was surprised that instead of the 10 questions that I expected, I saw only seven questions. What they asked was simple: my name, age, race and ethnicity. The last question asked whether I live in this residential hall most of the time, and after I checked yes, I found myself spending no more than 45 seconds on the whole thing.
Wow…that was simple.
The lady confirmed that Census workers will go to other colleges and do similar things to encourage students to fill out the Census. I suspect the participation rate of college neighborhoods on the Take 10 Map will witness a sudden rise in the coming days.
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