By Drew Teague

Blue forms in white government envelopes began flooding into students’ mailboxes about a month ago, and now, the turn in date for those forms is just around the bend.

The 2010 U.S. census began around March 15, and forms are due by Friday, according to the U.S. census Web site. As of Wednesday evening, about 70 percent of residents in Kentucky had submitted one.

The census affects the number of Congressional seats each state occupies. The information it collects can help determine how more than $400 billion of federal funding could be spent each year on infrastructure and services including hospitals and schools, according to the U.S. census Web site.

Some dorms on campus are requiring residents to fill out the census forms to help increase participation. Timiah Dickerson, a social work freshman, filled one out because of this.

“I probably wouldn’t care too much for (filling one out if it wasn’t required by the dorm),” Dickerson said.

As of Wednesday evening, about 67 percent of people in the country had participated in the census, according to census Web site.

This year, according to the Web site, the census takes less than 10 minutes to fill out, and freshman Elizabeth McSparin was surprised to see how convenient it was.

“(I was surprised) that it was short,” McSparin said.

Political science sophomore Kyle Hagerty said people should try to fill one out.

“Everyone should fill out their census forms because it is important to their communities and their countries,” Hagerty said. “The census is important because it is what determines the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives, federal funding to the states and (it) helps determine the demographics of the country.”

For more information on how to fill out a census, visit http://2010.census.gov/2010census/.