Census officials will visit campus to count students

With the 2000 census underway, the U.S. Census Bureau has sent out forms to all American households, aired commercials urging people to respond and tried to account for every detail — down to the last college student.

To ensure that college students who live on campus are not overlooked, the bureau will be sending representatives this spring to every college in the nation to tally the students who live on campus, census bureau representative Carl Anthony Money said.

According to Acting Registrar Joseph Greenberg, the census bureau has not yet contacted the University, but he expects that it will do so soon.

College students represent something of a gray area between dependent children and independent adults. According to the census bureau, households completing the census form are required to include any persons living or staying in the home for the majority of the year, such as foster children and boarders.

But this does not include students who live on college campuses.

"If a college student is living at a residence . . . they get their own census form," census representative Wade Hann said. He added that counting college students residing on campus is mainly the responsibility of the college or university that they attend.

Yet the question remains: Exactly how will the University and other colleges count and report campus students to the census bureau? With the April 12 filing deadline approaching, the bureau is prepared to help universities with this task.

"During Census 2000, after the April 12 deadline, census workers will visit the campus, physically go to the place," Money said.

"For the census purposes, students are counted to where they are attending college," USG president PJ Kim said, noting that all students at the University will be counted as residents of Mercer County.

Assistant Dean of Student Life Thomas Dunne and the USG are hoping to start a campaign to raise student awareness of the census.

The census bureau has also been recruiting students to help with the effort by hanging fliers and serving as census takers, among other tasks.

The primary purpose of the census is to determine the number of representatives each state will have in Congress, but the count is also used for planning and funding schools, community development and mass transportation. The census must be taken every 10 years, as specified in the U.S. Constitution.