Students hail Census forms

Despite major ad campaigns and bulletins encouraging U.S. residents to fill out their Census forms, so far officials say that the actual return rate has been disappointing. Traditionally, the lowest number of responses comes from low-income or non-English speaking groups. To combat this trend here on campus, the Asian Pacific Student Coalition is making an effort to help some of the Philadelphians who have not filled out their census forms by targeting taxi drivers who gather in front of the Quadrangle and around 30th Street Station. APSC members spent hours in front of the upper Quad gate on Tuesday approaching the primarily Asian and Middle Eastern cab drivers who collect there. The students provided forms for the drivers and offered to help fill them out. College sophomore Amit Vora explained why the APSC had taken on this project. "[The Census] determines a lot of government funding for health services and different types of programs," he said. "In 1990, less than 50 percent of the Asians in Philadelphia were counted." The APSC met with other Asian organizations in the area and also with the U.S. Census Bureau to discuss how they could help with this problem. Together, they came up with the cab driver project. The students said they received mixed reactions from the drivers --some were friendly, while others were confused or unwelcoming. College sophomore Trudy Chan, an APSC member and the president of the Chinese Students Association, said the endeavor proved to be more challenging than she thought it would be. "When you approach people with forms, they think you're trying to sell something," she said. Language barriers were also a problem. Some APSC members struggled to explain in Hindi to a cab driver what the Census form was. But despite the many obstacles, the students did manage to reach some of the drivers and help them fill out the forms or get them to take the forms home to fill out on their own. Some drivers said they had already completed the forms. Filling out the form "was easy," cab driver Rabindra Singh said. He added that he received a form in the mail and had no problems with it. Cab driver Jaswant Singh also said he had filled out the form and understood its significance. "Yes, it is important," he said, "because I'm counted in the U.S. -- my nationality." Although several of the drivers flatly refused to fill out the forms, either because they were afraid it would compromise immigration status or because they did not want to be bothered, others took a genuine interest in learning about the Census and agreed to fill out the forms. Yesterday, APSC members continued their campaign with cab drivers at at 30th Street Station.

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