PR students face unprecedented opportunity to work with U.S. Census Bureau

Students from the UVU chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America have begun working on the national Bateman Competition for the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 census.

The decennial census determines how state and federal funding will be spent each year on schools, roads, health care services, veteran care, education grants, housing assistance, rehabilitation loans, public transportation services and more. This year’s census will be the shortest to date consisting of just ten questions and, according to the PRSSA, will only take ten minutes to complete.

“The fact that ten minutes in 2010 will help allocate $400 billion dollars is pretty incredible,” said Roxanne Hutchens, member of PRSSA and team leader over the 2010 National Bateman team in conjunction with Lara Johnson. “It’s important the students know they make a difference.”

Hutchens, along with the UVU PRSSA, will be implementing multiple tactics to encourage census participation among students for the month of February.

“We have already distributed fliers and print collateral at a few events, including the Ronnie Price Hall of Fame induction and Miss UVU Pageant,” said Hutchens. “We hope to have as many people support our school and the census as possible, ensuring the success of our campaign, and ultimately, more funding for our school.”

The PRSSA hopes to use its university and college chapters to assist the Bureau to reach students – a normally difficult demographic. Students competing from UVU face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the public relations field to work on such a large scale campaign.

The point of the competition is to implement a branded campaign on campus and in the community. Students are expected to educate, motivate and activate other students of the benefits of participating in the 2010 Census.

As the UVU chapter has only existed for just over a year, this will be their first time participating in PRSSA’s national Bateman competition.

Forms for the census will be distributed to every home in the U.S. beginning in March. Students will be receiving hand delivered censuses from census workers or can pick them up at the local post office. Responses to the census are for statistical purposes only and are strictly confidential. However, responses are required by law. Though the Bureau does not yet offer an online census, questions on the upcoming form can be seen at www.2010.census.gov/2010census/how/interactive-form.php

Support the PRSSA by visiting www.J.Mp/UvuCensus. The link will take you to a discussion board dispelling common questions and automatically enter you to win a night in a King Suite at the Salt Lake Hilton Hotel. From this page you can find a link to the team’s Facebook account “TenIn2010.” Frequent questions and answers can be found on the Census Bureau’s home page at www.Census.gov