The Daily Tar Heel
Printing news. Raising hell. Since 1893.
Thursday, March 28, 2024 Newsletters Latest print issue

We keep you informed.

Help us keep going. Donate Today.
The Daily Tar Heel

This makes census: Filling out census forms will bene?t everyone; student should ignore the baseless attacks

Get counted. Census Day is April 1, and students who live off campus need to fill out their census questionnaires.

Students who live on campus don’t need to worry about filling out census questionnaires. Rick Bradley, an assistant director at the Department of Housing and Residential Education, said the housing department takes care of the census data for on-campus students.

But off-campus students are on their own, and they need to fill out their forms.

Students are not included on their parents’ form. Unless students actually live in their family’s house — and that’s a select group of lucky Chapel Hill natives — they have to fill out a form separately from their parents.

The 2010 questionnaire is only supposed to take about 10 minutes to complete.

And by law, the census bureau cannot share your information with anyone — not with law enforcement, other government agencies or courts. It’s safe.

Don’t believe the rumors about it being a Big Brother scheme.

So when you get the form in the mail, fill it out and send it back.

If you don’t, the government will have to spend tax money to send a U.S. Census Bureau employee to your residence to get the information.

Filling out the census questionnaire is probably one of our most basic and important tasks as citizens.

The census is constitutionally required every 10 years.

It affects how many legislators each state has in the House of Representatives. And it can help determine how much money the federal government distributes for schools, college financial aid programs, medical care, public safety and roads — many of the core government functions we depend on.

The point of the census is to get an accurate snapshot of where people live most of the year, which for us is Chapel Hill.

So just fill the thing out. It’s not asking much, and it’ll save you the pain of being hounded by a census bureau employee.

To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.