NEWS ADVISORY

ATTENTION: Photographers and census, demographics and higher education writers

What: Photo and interview opportunities during a University of California, Berkeley, collection drive for 2010 U.S. Census forms. The event is part of a student-led campaign to better count the 35,000 UC Berkeley student population for the latest census.

College and university students are believed to be significantly undercounted in the national census conducted every ten years, and accurate data is important to federal funding allocations for community services and programs involving schools, transportation, health, emergency preparedness, disaster recovery and other critical needs.

"In the last census, a UC Berkeley residential hall with more than 1,000 students had just one student counted and that effectively cost the city more than $10,000 of federal funding for each uncounted student over the last decade," said Christina Markle, a UC Berkeley senior and a leader of the census drive who noted that 6,000 students live in the campus's residence halls. "This year, we want a 100 percent count, and we want to educate college students about how this simple form can positively impact their community."

Who: UC Berkeley students living in campus residents' halls will be turning in their completed census forms. Leaders of the campus census collection drive also will be available, including:

• Christina Markle, UC Berkeley senior
• James Carroll, assistant director of residential living for UC Berkeley's Residential and Student Services Program
• Joe Lee, census coordinator for the city of Berkeley and a recent UC Berkeley graduate

Where: Unit One Residence Hall, 2650 Durant Ave., Berkeley, just south of the main campus; see online map.

When: 7-8 p.m., Monday, April 19 is a designated time for media photos and interviews. The official collection will continue at Unit One until about 10 p.m. on Monday and from 6 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20. The Monday event is expected to yield the largest number of student census forms, according to organizers.

Background: Residents of group quarters such as a student residence hall, co-op, fraternity or sorority housing have until May 1 to return the census form. Students who submit their census forms at special drop-off points from April 19-21 will be eligible for prizes.

A flyer circulated to promote the UC Berkeley census effort is available online; also, read a News Center feature story about the census drive.

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SOURCES: Christina Markle, a UC Berkeley student census drive organizer, via e-mail or phone (818) 282-5689; and Joe Lee, census coordinator for the city of Berkeley and a recent UC Berkeley graduate, via e-mail or (510) 981-7028.