The U.S. Census Bureau is urging students to be counted on campus as part of Census 2010. GW students who spend most of the year as residents of the District but do not submit D.C. census forms cost the District $4,656 per person per year in federal government support.
According to the last census in 2000, 572,059 people lived in Washington, D.C. An estimate on the U.S. Census Bureau Web site set that number at 591,833 for 2008, so that number could rise above 600,000 for 2010. College students, who represent one out of every six D.C. residents, can make a big difference in determining how much support the District receives for education, transportation and emergency services.
“The Census advises that students should be counted where they live the majority of the year. For most students, that means being counted in the District,” says Kent Springfield, B.A. ’03, director of federal government relations at GW. “Students’ dependent status on tax forms, voting registration, permanent address and citizenship are not relevant to where they are counted for the census. What matters is where they live on April 1, 2010.”
Students are being urged to fill out their forms and return them as soon as possible. On-campus GW students can expect census forms to arrive in their mail boxes today. Upon receiving the forms, students should fill them out and submit them as soon as possible by dropping them in the designated collection boxes on campus, located in each residence hall (the misdirected mailboxes), Colonial Central and Student Package Services. Off-campus students have likely already received their forms, which they can mail back.
Mr. Springfield’s office has created the Web site http://census.gwu.edu to serve as a resource for members of the GW community with questions about the census.