The university’s administration is leading the effort to encourage its students and Carbondale community members to fill out their census forms — and officials said it will not even take as long as the advertised “10 questions, 10 Minutes.”
Larry Dietz, vice chancellor for student affairs, said it took him only four minutes to fill out the form for himself and his wife.
Dietz said he tries to lead by example for students at the university so they also fill out their forms. He has been meeting with university officials to get the word out to students to let them know the importance of filling out their forms — and that doing so is not so bad.
“Most of it will take three or four minutes — it doesn’t cost you anything,” he said. “You pop it in the mail and you’re done.”
Students have raised questions about what place they should write down as their place of residence because most students in Carbondale are only temporary residents, Dietz said.
Everyone needs to mark their residence based on where they will be living on April 1, meaning most SIUC students should write down Carbondale.
Dietz said this accuracy is important because the city will receive funding from the federal government for various services such as parks and recreation and transportation.
The city of Carbondale will receive $77 per person per year based on the census forms, he said. The city will have received $770 per person by the time the next census comes in 2020.
“You’re a student of the university, I’m an employee of the university, but we’re all members of this community and I think we all want the greater community to be as good as it can be,” Dietz said.
Even though the university would not directly receive funding from the government, it flourishes when the community does, said Rod Sievers, university spokesperson.
“There’s a symbiotic relationship between the university and the city,” Sievers said. “What’s good for the city is good for the university and what’s good for university is good for the city.”
Students living off campus and in Elizabeth Apartments and Evergreen Terrace will receive their census forms per household like everyone else, but students living in the residence halls will receive their forms from the resident assistants, said Lisa Marks, assistant director of University Housing.
Housing members have been training their resident assistants about the census to make sure the students living on campus are educated on how they should fill out their forms, she said.
She said the census forms have not arrived yet for the students living in the residence halls but they should be arriving soon.
In addition to housing, the Student Center and Recreation Center have been placing posters up around their facilities.
The Recreation Center posted fliers inside the building and held meetings with its employees for them to lead as an example for other students, said Sally Wright, associate director of recreational programs.
The center also has a unique outreach when compared to housing and other on-campus facilities, Wright said. She said it serves a large amount of students living on campus and off campus, as well as other residents from Carbondale and even outside the community.
“Anybody who uses our facility needs to fill out the census,” she said. “With the sheer volume of traffic that comes here, it’s a natural fit to have some signage up and be repeating the requests to have those (forms) get done.”
The U.S. Census Bureau reported Carbondale’s population as 20,681 in 2000, and estimated that the population rose by more than 5,000 in 2008. The margin of error for the estimation in 2008 was 1.8 percent.
Dietz said the ultimate goal for the university is to make sure every student fills out the census form, no matter how unrealistic that goal is.
“If you don’t have lofty goals, then your achievement won’t be lofty either,” he said. “We need to shoot high and then we’ll hit high.”
Erin Holcomb can be reached at eholcomb@dailyegyptian.com or 536-3311 ext. 255.
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