Students should list Cortland as residence in 2020 Census

05/04/2020 

Every 10 years, the United States counts the number of people who live in the country, partly so that federal funding can be distributed appropriately. SUNY Cortland is encouraging students to report their place of residence as Cortland on the 2020 census, which will ultimately help the university have a bigger population and more federal funding.

The Census provides data that is important in determining how funds are distributed to  health care, education, small business loans, infrastructure and other important building-blocks of our community. It aims to record where people were living in the spring of 2020. To complete the Census, visit 2020census.gov or complete the form that was mailed to your address.

College students are frequently under-reported in the Census because students often list their home address rather than their college address. This could be even more prevalent this Census year, because so many students are pursuing distance education at home. Information collected during this unprecedented time, however, will influence decisions for the next decade.

Responses to the Census are confidential and SUNY Cortland is motivated to help provide the correct data that will allocate money and legislative representation to Cortland County, where its students attend school.

John Suarez, director of the Institute for Civic Engagement, and Sandra Wohlleber, associate director of campus activities and Greek affairs, have authored a letter to students with more information on why this is important for SUNY Cortland.

The Institute for Civic Engagement and the Art and Art History and Health departments at SUNY Cortland are teaming up to do a creative social media campaign about this Census.

The 2020 Census provides art students with a unique opportunity to refine their skills by creating promotional posters. These posters were created by some of Alexis Blavos’s and Kelechi Ibe-Lamberts’s Community Health students, working with students in Szilvia Kadas’s Design II course and the Institute for Civic Engagement’s Census Advocate students. Students channeled their creativity through a form of activism to make raise awareness among students that  the Census is very important and students matter even if they don’t live in Cortland year-round.

Posters are available to view on social media and on the Institute for Civic Engagement’s website.

Prepared by Communications Office writing intern Erica Mirlas