It takes five minutes to complete. It is self-explanatory, pre-addressed and prepaid. And it is important to individuals, schools and communities. However, thousands of Ohio State students didn’t complete it.

With ten questions, this year’s census was the shortest form in the history of census data collection, said Rose Simmons, census outreach leader for central Ohio.

The 2010 Census counted every OSU student in campus residence halls via university records.

“We provided the Bureau with a roster of statistical information,” said Christy Blessing, OSU’s director of Housing Services. “It’s more accurate that way.”

Dorm-dwellers never saw a census form, but 100 percent of them were accounted for.

However, for students living off campus, the responsibility and civic duty to fill out census forms rested in their own mailboxes.

“On-campus was relatively easy to count,” said Kim Hunter, census media specialist for the Detroit region, which encompasses Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. “The real challenge is off campus.”

But the census doesn’t use a margin of error to account for unreturned forms in such areas, including those with high student populations. Whatever is returned is taken as a factual count, said Earlene Dowell, census public affairs specialist.

To better target underrepresented areas, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland established the Ohio Complete Count Committee, Hunter said. It is chaired by State Treasurer Kevin Boyce.

In November 2009, the committee met with census director Robert Groves to discuss pursuing students. They used university e-mail services to reach every student.

In an e-mail sent via Buckeye Net News on April 18, OSU students received President E. Gordon Gee’s message: “With support for our schools, infrastructure, and emergency services on the line, I urge you to join me in being counted.”

The census form yields no student distinction. Although students are considered part of the general public, they are targeted through campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

The Census Portrait of America Road Tour was the largest civic outreach and awareness program in U.S. history, according the census website. It stopped at OSU on April 6 to motivate apathetic off-campus students.

But these students east of High Street participated at a far lower rate than the state and national average.

The census breaks the country down into statistical tracts consisting of several blocks. In the area of 12th Avenue to 16th Avenue, from High Street to the railroad tracks of Fourth Street, 49 percent of households returned census forms.

However, more northern off-campus tracts exhibited more responsibility in completing the census.

Households in the region immediately north of 16th Avenue but south of Lane Avenue had a 56 percent participation rate, and 61 percent in the tract north of Lane returned their forms.

The thousands of students not participating should expect census takers to knock on their doors starting Saturday. These enumerators are hired from the Columbus area, so they have a vested interest in collecting data.

The census website encourages people to “open the door to a census taker and open doors for your community.”

“The enumerators will go to every house that didn’t send a form back,” said Carol Hector-Harris, census media specialist for central Ohio. “Most of it will be done in the evenings and on weekends.”

Census takers knock on doors and ask each census form question, and only those questions. Whoever opens the door should answer for the entire household but should first check the enumerator’s identification. They will never ask to enter a home.

If nobody answers the door, enumerators leave a double-sided notice of visit. This includes a phone number residents can call to schedule a time for census takers to return.

Enumerators will come back up to six times to houses that don’t answer or call them, Hector-Harris said.

They will also call each household up to three times.

“For every one percent increase in the national participation rate by mail, the Census Bureau would save $85 million by not having to send census takers door-to-door,” according to the census website.

In 1970, it cost the Bureau $14.39 per household to collect data. That increased to $29.05 in 1980, $39.61 in 1990 and $69.79 in 2000.

But in 2010, the Bureau spent $110.61 on every household in America, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The 2000 Census showed 2,281 households combined in the aforementioned three off-campus tracts. Even a generous participation rate of 60 percent for those households means roughly 912 houses did not return forms, creating a federal waste of $100,876.32 on OSU’s off-campus students alone.

Census data determine the use of $400 billion going to college research, tuition grants and loan programs, among other things.

Also, “If 100 percent of households mailed back their forms, taxpayers would save $1.5 billion,” according to the census Facebook page.

If that isn’t enough incentive, it is illegal to not participate. Section 221 of Title 13 of the United States Code requires people to respond to census forms.

Something, then, must have motivated thousands of off-campus students to break the law.

Though the Census Bureau doesn’t keep track of student response rates, analysts say students have historically been among the lowest levels of participation. Groves referenced his own college-aged son to address why.

“Our son was surprised that the Census Bureau would mail a questionnaire to his off-campus housing. He thought that my wife and I would report for him. The notion that he and his roommates would have to fill out a single 2010 Census form was a shock. They don’t think of themselves as a ‘household.’ There is no one
roommate who pays the rent, who gets the mail, who takes on the role of the head of household,” Groves said.

This scenario describes what happened to many OSU students. Others thought that because they don’t own their house, they should not participate.

“We always know that we missed people, but there’s a disproportionate undercount for renters,” Hunter said.

2000 Census data shows that 49.4 percent of housing units in Columbus were renter-occupied, whereas the national average was 32.9 percent.

Other students ignored forms because they are moving soon and didn’t think their data would matter.

Barbara Ronningen, a demographer for the state of Minnesota, said, “Sometimes when students are busy with classes, they forget basic civic obligations.”