Northern Arizona University is working closely with local representatives of the U.S. Census Bureau to encourage faculty, staff and students to complete their census forms and, perhaps more important to the university, to ensure an accurate count of campus.
Residence Life will work closely with local census representatives to sponsor Road Tour 101—a traveling informational exhibit—and to distribute census questionnaires door to door. The tour “bus” will be on campus March 29 near the University Union.
University students are considered residents of the place where they live while attending school, and not at their parents’ addresses. They should fill out the forms on campus. All U.S. residents should be counted—both citizens and non-citizens, including international students.
It is believed that the NAU campus was undercounted in the 2000 Census by approximately 2000 students. The regional census office reports that a similar undercount this year would amount to is a loss of $1,500 per undercounted person to the local community.
Every year, more than $300 billion in federal funds is awarded to states and communities based on census data. Census data affect school budgets, specifically distribution of Title I and special education funding and college tuition grant and loan programs.
Community planners use census data to determine where to build new schools, provide public transportation and build new roads. Census totals also are used to determine how many seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives and to allocate seats in state legislatures.