“Having an accurate tally of who and how many people are living in these areas the majority of the year is critical to secure funding for vital infrastructure that affects the daily lives of college students and neighboring St. Louisans.”

I would like to take a moment to wish you a happy belated Census Day. Okay, this holiday is not official, but merely a day that Congress and the Census Bureau decided to commemorate in order to encourage people to send in their Census forms. Here’s a shocker for those of you who know how in tune I am with politics: I haven’t managed to send in my form yet.

While the 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students of the University only make up about 1 percent of St. Louis County, most of these students live in University City or Clayton.

As the biblical tradition of counting heads is set to begin, many observers are asking the same question: Why is the word “negro” on the census? Every 10 years, the U.S. government conducts a census to determine which areas of the country need federal funding the most, to reapportion congressional representation and to learn more about the current U.S. population.