With the Census deadline fast approaching, ASU officials say that thousands of their students may be filling out their forms incorrectly, or not at all, which could have a major impact on state funding allocation.
The Census deadline is Sept. 30, and every 10 years the Census is taken in an effort to count every person living in the United States. Its purpose is to distribute federal funding to cities and local governments based on how many people live there.
A student undercount could be disastrous, ASU officials and student government leaders warned.
“We have thousands of students living off of campus who aren’t filling out the census,” an ASU spokesperson said. “That’s money that’s used to maintain roads, maintain sidewalks,…parks, a lot of infrastructure that people never think about.”
Naruyeya Ruburura, a first year medical studies transfer student, said he filled out the form because he wants to be counted.
“I live [in Arizona] too, so they want to get the numbers of the people, and I think it’s my responsibility to make sure of that,” he said.
According to the U.S. Census, it’s important that at least one person in every household fill out the form for the rest of the people who live there, whether it be family, friends or roommates.
“There’s no individual repercussions for anybody that doesn’t do it,” the official said. “But it’s a larger, group repercussion for not having the appropriate numbers counted because, again, it means a loss of federal money for those communities.”
Pell grants, affordable housing programs and health care services depend on an accurate Census count to operate with enough funds.
“Once the census passes, it’s done. Everything gets recorded and everybody moves on and then funds will be distributed according to the populations of those municipalities,” the university spokesperson said. “If you’re undercounted, then those communities can expect to just have less funding come from the federal government.”
Students living away from home are sometimes under the impression that their parents fill out the Census for them.
“I did not fill out the census but I’m pretty sure my parents did,” said Cyncere Penn, a freshman criminology and criminal justice major.
Unless students live at home full time, they should be filling out their own Census form, according to the Census website.
On-campus students, however, are accounted for by the university and don’t have to fill out the Census, said the Census Bureau’s information officer, Virginia Hyer.
Off-campus students are still on the hook, however, and should complete the Census, accounting for their roommates and everyone who lives full-time in their household. If students are unsure whether or not their roommates have already completed the Census, they should fill it out again just to be safe, since the Census Bureau accounts for duplications, according to their website.
Nora Thompson is the undergraduate student government president of the downtown Phoenix campus.
“One thing that ASU told us is that an undercount of 1% could mean $62 million lost by the state over the next 10 years,” Thompson said. “Filling out the census is one of the most important things that we can do to maintain and to also make things better in our community.”
Thompson encourages students to fill out the forms for the greater good of the community.
“Students that fill out the census are completely doing their civic duty, they are creating a positive impact in the world,” she said. “They are what’s going to help our state continue to grow and do all of the amazing things that Arizona already does.”
Contact the reporter at pmuse@asu.edu.
Editor’s note: Nora Thompson is a former contributor to Downtown Devil. She did not contribute to the reporting in this story and had no editorial input.
