So the Census. I’m confused

Did you know that Brandeis is a 2010 Census on Campus partner? According to the Census Bureau that means that Brandeis has “formally pledged [its] commitment to share the 2010 Census message and mobilize [its] constituents in support of the Census Bureau’s goal of achieving a complete and accurate count.”

Does that explain all the census fliers in Usdan?
The problem with generic fliers in Usdan is this: to students, they look like a scam. I mean obviously the federal government isn’t trying to scam you, but glossy literature that is clearly meant not just for Brandeis sets off my “marketing crap, ignore” alert. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Anyways, some people think that we shouldn’t worry about filling out the Census because our parents are taking care of it. That’s probably not true. I just talked to my folks and they said the Census people specifically told them not to count me with their forms. Also, the Census main site says this:

However, students living away from home will receive their own questionnaires, so to prevent students from being counted twice (or not at all!) in the census, they and their parents need to know this.

So I’m pretty sure I need to fill out a census form. But I never got one. Is this because I have on-campus housing? The Census on Campus website is not helpful.

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7 thoughts on “So the Census. I’m confused”

  1. Spencer Ackerman ’09 works for the census and told me that they’re going to be sending census forms to our student mailboxes this month.

  2. No worries, Sahar! Miranda’s right and the CAs are on it as April programming… keep a look out for it soon. Also, thanks for the tip on making some non-generic marketing materials.

    Remind your parents/guardians to read the instructions carefully and to NOT count you if you live on campus!

  3. We’re definitely supposed to be counted at school — it’s a six-months-plus-a-day rule. My sister, spending these nine months in Israel before starting school next fall, is to be uncounted anywhere.

  4. My parents, on their census form were specefically asked who, and how many people live in the house on April 1, 2010, so they included me….

  5. I just filled out the census form my family got, and it says specific institutions (like colleges, military bases, etc.) do their own census thing. The only way you would still be considered still on your parents’ census would be if you were still living at home and commuting to school. We’ll get our forms in the mail (there were people in Shapiro talking about it a while back).

  6. Brandeis is counted as group quarters, which is counted in April:
    http://tinyurl.com/yd8oqej (pdf). I believe we’ll either get them through our mailbox or through the CAs after break based something sent out my residence hall.

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