It is time to fill out a U.S. Census, as this year is the start of a new decade.
Many people are not sure what a census is and why it is important, according to Lanette M. Swopes, a specialist for the Philadelphia Regional Census Center.
In order to educate students about the census, representatives from the center were outside at the HUB from 12 until 5 p.m. Tuesday as part of an ongoing bus tour throughout the region.
The center serves all of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C. and 11 counties in southern New Jersey, Swopes said. She said several people attended the event, including a fifth-grade class, Indiana Mayor George Hood and other county officials.
“This whole road tour is about promotion and awareness to the census,” Swopes said.
Students should not be included as dependents of their parents, because they do not live at home for the majority of the year, according to Swopes.
Students that live in the dorms will receive individual census reports, which consist of seven questions. The dorm’s residential advisers will distribute them to students. Students will then have to fill it out and return it to their residential advisers, Swopes said.
“If a student lives off campus, they will receive a regular census form like the rest of the population,” Swopes said.
She said students will have until April 1 to fill out and send the form to the census.
Swopes said that the census serves two purposes: districting seats in Congress and distributing money to each district.
Jai Ramos, a member of the Census Bureau, put the visit to IUP together.
“The event was to happen someplace else, but it was canceled,” she said. “It was put together really quickly, but it turned out to be an exciting event.”
The regional census also recently visited Temple and Cheney universities in Pennsylvania.
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