The Census Comes to GW

Census forms have begun to appear in mailboxes across campus and around the District this week as the university begins its participation in the 2010 count.

The stakes are high as the District of Columbia competes with all other states for over $400 billion in federal spending each year, spending which is distributed proportionally according to data collected by the census. As one in six DC residents are college students, their counting is of great importance to the district.

In fact, the university calculates that each student not counted costs the District $46,000 over the 10-year course of the current census, depriving the city of funding necessary to maintain education, transportation, and emergency services.

The transitory nature of college students, however, has created some confusion among the student body, in particular their official residency status. Should GW students be counted in DC, or in the hometowns?

By Census Bureau methodology, GW students are residents of DC and should only be counted in the District, not in their hometowns. Families whose children are living in GW or off-campus housing in the district should not include them in their family census form, as they will then be double counted in both their home state and DC.

As stated on the form's envelope, all residents (citizens and non-citizens alike) are required to complete the census form by law. If they fail to do so, a Bureau of the Census employee will attempt to interview the resident in person by visiting dorm rooms reported by GW as non-responding. The Bureau allows for census enumerators, as the door-to-door headcounters are called, to visit a non-responding domicile up to six times to ensure the complete recording of the population.

Students in GW housing may return their forms by placing them inside the envelope in which they were received and depositing them in their dorm's misdirected mailbox, or by placing them in census form collection boxes located in Colonial Central and the package center. Off-campus students may simply place their forms in the mail, and Mt. Vernon students may return the form to the Somers Hall Key Depot or Ames Hall's package services pickup window.