Data collected Monday verified that Bowdoin students are among the best in the nation—at turning in census forms.
Of the students living in campus housing, 93 percent returned their census forms to the College by the Sunday deadline, according to Associate Director of Housing Operations Lisa Rendall. Approximately 10 U.S. Census employees came to campus on Monday to count the returned forms. The on-campus return rate is well ahead of the national return rate and the return rate for Cumberland County, Maine, which are respectively 68 and 69 percent, as of Thursday.
The Office of Residential Life (ResLife) challenged student staff members, who distributed the census forms around campus, to achieve 100 percent participation rates from their residential halls in by last Friday, in exchange for a sponsored pizza party. Ten buildings met the challenge.
Rendall said senior David Funk, the head proctor of West Hall, was one of the ResLife staffers particularly motivated to gain 100 percent participation from his residence hall.
Funk, along with the other West Hall proctors, set up camp in the lobby of the dorm on Wednesday evening and solicited participation from the West residents as they entered the building. Their efforts helped the dorm reach 100 percent participation by Thursday.
Still, Rendall heard from student ResLife staffers that there were "definitely people that didn't want to fill it out."
Though Funk was met with no resistance in his efforts to get students to fill out the census, he felt that participating in the process was a reasonable expectation of the government's.
Said Funk, "Isn't it just like doing your taxes?"