The 2010 U.S. Census will require a team effort from the Eastern staff and students to have a smooth count of the campus population.

This week, members from the U.S. Census Bureaus met with Kelly Miller, assistant director of housing, and they have planned how the census will be completed within the residence halls.

On April 6, representatives will come and talk with Eastern

professional staff.

“They will talk about what will happen, when it will happen and how it will happen,” Miller said.

“Group quarters enumeration will take place between April 1 and May 21,” said U.S. Census Bureau representative Lydia Oritz. “During this time, the Census Bureau will count group living quarters such as prisons, college dorms, nursing homes, shelters (and) military barracks.”

How the count is administered will depend on the type of facility.

In some facilities, the administration may provide the information for all the residents.

However, in other facilities, such as a dorm, each resident will fill out a form.

Resident Assistants on each floor will hold a floor meeting and the houses on Greek Court will hold chapter meetings on April 11 and 12 for students to fill out the forms.

The form will have six questions asking a student’s name, gender, race, birth date, age and residence most of the year. Filling out the form should take less than three minutes.

“We have will provide a full alphabetical list of who is where on campus to the Census (Bureau) on April 6, which they have requested,” Miller said.

The Census Bureau will then verify the numbers between the census forms and the university’s list.

While officials, with the rest of the city, will be able to check the numbers the Census Bureau collects with computer programs, the checking of the dorms will be easier.

Resident Assistants will work with the students on their own floors and they will be aware of who attended the meeting and who did not.

“We will have a higher success rate than the Census (Bureau) because we have the Resident Assistants living on the floor with the students who should be counted and they do not,” Miller said. “We have been doing all we can to help them complete the count.”

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942

or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu