Instructions to complete the 2020 census began arriving in mailboxes March 12, and IU students who live off campus, in RPS-leased apartments or in RPS on-campus apartments will need to respond by Aug. 14.
Responding to the census questionnaire is required by law, but the coronavirus pandemic has changed the course of the U.S. Census Bureau’s operations. In-person interviews for Census Bureau surveys have been temporarily suspended and the deadline to respond was extended from July 31 to Aug. 14.
Even if students have moved due to the suspension of in-person classes, they should respond to the census questionnaire using the address they live at while school is in session, according to the Census Bureau. For most IU students, this is their Bloomington or Monroe County address.
IU students living in residence halls and greek housing will be counted by university administrators and do not need to respond to the census questionnaire themselves, said Valerie Peña, chief of staff in the IU Office of the Vice President for Government Relations and Economic Engagement.
Peña said students can also complete the census online even if they do not have their Census ID, which comes in the mail invitation. Students can type in their Bloomington street address instead.
Senior Jae Woo said filling out the census questionnaire wasn't at the top of his to-do list because he was unsure about his plans for after spring break.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay in the U.S. or return to my home country,” Woo said. “I recently decided to stay here until the end of the semester.”
He said he completed the 2020 census this week and responding to the census questionnaire was much simpler than he expected.
Beverly Calender-Anderson, co-chair of the Bloomington-Monroe County Complete Count Committee, and Peña said responding to the online census questionnaire took them about five minutes or less.
“It’s a very easy form,” Calender-Anderson said. “It’s just, you know, click, click, click.”
Indiana tied with Iowa with the third best response rate for the 2010 Census, drawing a mail participation rate of 78%, according to the Indiana Business Research Center. Monroe County’s mail participation rate was between 70% and 74%, and Bloomington’s participation rate was 70%. Calender-Anderson said the Bloomington-Monroe County Complete Count Committee is working to raise Indiana’s response rate for the 2020 census.
The committee will continue working with IU Student Government, the Dean of Students Office and Office of the Provost to help IU students and parents learn more about the 2020 census, Peña said. More information should be available on social media, blogs and in newsletters over the next few weeks.
The census is important because it plays a role in states' political representation and federal funding, Calender-Anderson said. The number of seats each state gets in the House of Representatives is based on each state’s population as determined by the census. The census also determines how much federal funding communities will receive over the next ten years.
“Enlarging hospitals, fixing our roads, determining funding for things like daycare or Medicaid and all across the spectrum of our lives, that data becomes important,” Calender-Anderson said.
