Across the state, students are leaving college campuses and moving back home to finish out the remainder of the academic year online.

The swift action many universities took to try to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic could hurt college towns in the 2020 census.

With the quick changes for where many students are now staying, it may not be clear on where they should fill out the census form.

Census data helps determine lots of things including funding for highways and transit, money for head start and other school programs and many programs in rural communities.

The director of Bloomington’s Community and Family Resources Department, Beverly Calendar-Anderson says students should count themselves in their respective college towns.

"Wherever a student was going to be April 1, before the pandemic, wherever they were going to be that's where they should have their census completed for," Calendar-Anderson said.

If students lived in on-campus housing or university-owned greek housing, they do not need to fill out the census as their university should be working with the Census Bureau to have them counted.

For students living in houses or apartments off-campus, they should fill out their census form online, by phone or by mail. If you are having trouble filing your census form, officials recommend visiting 2020census.com.

Contact Matt at mrasnic@iu.edu or follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Rasnic.

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