Get counted with communication junior Lindsay Bacigalupo, who was at the East Lansing Census Awareness Month launch Monday at the rock on Farm Lane. Bacigalupo was the team leader for a group of MSU students who — along with help from East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis — passed out census information and took pledges from students to take part in the nation-wide survey.
Ten questions could equal big bucks for the city of East Lansing.
City officials and a student group are urging the MSU community to fill out the 2010 U.S. Census, which will be 10 questions long instead of the 53 questions from the last census in 2000.
East Lansing proclaimed February “Census Awareness Month” to spread the message about the city’s source of state and federal funding.
East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis was at the rock on Farm Lane on Monday with the MSU chapter of the Bateman Case Study Competition to pass out fliers to students about the census, which will be distributed in mid-March and must be completed and mailed by April 1.
The Bateman Case Study Competition is part of the Public Relations Student Society of America.
“It’s 10 questions, 10 minutes and it can give your community thousands of dollars,” said Lindsay Bacigalupo, Bateman team director and a public relations junior.
Loomis said the more than $400 billion in federal funds are available annually through the census, which affects tuition costs, helps fund the Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, and determines allocation of Pell Grants for low-income undergraduate students.
“We all know the pressure that’s been on tuition lately,” he said. “The pressure that’s been on our costs in general.”
After a series of tuition increases — the most recent being a 5.2 percent increase for the 2009-10 year — MSU officials will try to tighten the university’s total operating budget by 15 percent to 20 percent during the next three years.
Loomis and Bacigalupo emphasized the role census information plays in government funding.
Given MSU students live in East Lansing for most of the school year, it makes the most sense to list an East Lansing address in the census, she said.
Contrary to myths, listing a different address than a permanent address does not impact being claimed on parents’ health insurance plans or as being a dependent on
income taxes — a message MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon will stress to parents when she sends a letter regarding the census to every student’s permanent address in the coming weeks.
Bacigalupo added the slimmer census is “much less invasive than Facebook.” More specific questions will now be handled through supplementary census forms conducted every three years.
Packaging freshman Hayley Laird, who was at the rock on Farm Lane on Monday, said the shorter census will be more appealing to students.
“I feel like a lot of kids would be like, ‘Oh, it’s just another survey, why would we need to do it?’ If it only takes 10 minutes then why not just do it?” she said.
East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said confusion among students regarding tax and insurance information probably led to an inaccurate and low count by about 2,500 residents in the 2000 U.S. Census.
Staton said the city has difficulty counting off-campus housing, as the census allows access to MSU’s housing records to gauge an accurate count of students living on campus.
“Lots has happened to change the population in East Lansing over the last 10 years,” said Staton of the city’s 46,525 residents, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
“You’ve had this decentralization of the population a little bit by all the apartments that have been built further from campus — some outside the city, some inside the city.”
Loomis said students must remember the census is significant beyond 2010.
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“It’s not funding for just one year,” he said. “It’s funding for 10 years.”
Staff writer Ian Johnson contributed to this report.
