Become Civically Engaged with Terps Vote! Be counted by completing the 2020 Census! Help UMD and the College Park Community receive proper funding and resources!

Complete the Census: my2020census.gov
Learn more at: umd.edu/census2020
Become Civically Engaged: https://terplinksites.umd.edu/Departments/TerpsVote/Home

Works to increase civic engagement at the University of Maryland by educating the campus and institutionalizing positive voting behavior. The TerpsVote Coalition is a combination of faculty and student stakeholders that represent different populations of student life and partner together to advocate for a voter-friendly university. TerpsVote contributes to the campus by providing presentations, informational resources, specialized expertise, and advocacy on civic engagement.

By law, the U.S. census counts every resident in the United States every ten years. Students, like you, must be counted RIGHT HERE in College Park, including students living on- and off-campus, international students, and non-U.S. citizens (even if you have temporarily relocated due to COVID-19). Your response determines funding and representation for our community, including:

As the world continues to face this global health crisis, we wish you good health in the weeks and

months to come. As the Covid-19 crisis continues, a critical aspect of our civic duty—the 2020 Census—carries on. An inaccurate census count will have serious consequences on our future.

Completing the census provides funding, resources, services, political representation and more to our community for the next 10 years. According to the 2020 Census hard to count map, both the College Park area and Prince George’s County had low response rates during the 2010 Census. Only 49% of the tract that includes UMD’s campus responded to the census in 2010. Prince George’s County had a response rate of 76.5%. The undercount in 2010 impacted the County’s political representation at the federal and state level and significantly compromised federal funding.

The U.S. Constitution requires a census every 10 years to count every resident in the United States.

Completing the census is a vital part of our democracy and civic duty. The distribution of more than $675 billion in federal funds, grants and support to states, counties, and communities are based on census data. An estimated $18,250 is lost in funding per person for our community over a 10-year period for each uncounted person.

Your response matters. The census impacts federal funding that goes towards critical higher education programs such as: Federal Pell Grants, school safety, adult education grants, student wellness programs, and more.

Completing the census is safe, easy, and important. Personal information is kept confidential by law, and personal data is kept secure. The census can be completed online, by phone, or by mail.

For Students
The Census Bureau is proceeding to count U.S. college students and foreign students for their on- or off-campus residences. Students should fill out the Census using their pre-Spring break address, not where they are currently located during online learning.

On-Campus Students
For students that live in on-campus student housing like residence halls, off-campus residence halls, or other student housing facilities that are owned, leased, or managed by UMD, representatives from the university are working with the U.S. Census Bureau to ensure you are counted through Group Quarters Enumeration. Therefore, you do not have to complete a census form.

Off-Campus Students
For students who live off-campus, take the step to Be Counted! by completing your census form at https://my2020census.gov. You should fill out the form based on your off-campus residence and not where you may have relocated to because of remote learning. The form will take no more than 10 minutes to complete, and due to COVID-19, the U.S. Census Bureau is seeking approval from Congress to extend the self-response deadline from August 14 until October 31, 2020.