Comments on: Stealth Census: Students Not Told They Were Counted

By: Travis Pillow

Travis Pillow — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:21:45 +0000

I live with a guy who just quit his job as a supervisor at the local Census office. This sort of group enumeration is standard procedure for most apartments, prisons, dorms, any kind of group living situation. The building manager, warden or whoever hands over the data on the residents, and then census workers verify those counts by contacting people.

Since the constitution calls for every person to be enumerated, this is one way to do that efficiently. “Consent” is a complete non-issue here.

By: Adam Peck

Adam Peck — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:56:38 +0000

As this issue has come up a few times, I feel as though I should clarify something. Illegality has nothing to do with this situation. I very purposefully did not say anything that was done was illegal, because that is not the case.

But as the current economic crisis has taught us, legality does not equal “right.” Was Stony Brook perfectly within its right to withhold information from its students? Yes. Were they right to do that? That’s up to you to decide.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:14:12 +0000

If the few comments here are any indication of the current state of the college education system, we’re all in for a lot of pain.

One response is from someone who apparently didn’t even read the article.

A second response indicates that over or under counting is either good or bad. How about neither? These forms are literally a simple questionnaire and in this day and age, if universities, colleges, and families can’t fill them out properly, then I feel sorry for all involved.

A third response indicates that the author had some underlying intent of classifying SUNY Stony Brook as perpetrating an illegal act even though no where in the article was the law or a crime brought up. Nice to see that people still read what they want to, taking something completely out of context in their own mind.

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By: Hans

Hans — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:01:36 +0000

Overcounting people is better than undercounting people.

By: Alvy Singer

Alvy Singer — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:41:56 +0000

It’s called ‘by proxy’. Completely legal. Nice try to make something out of nothing.

By: M

Mon, 03 May 2010 15:03:10 +0000

No, that’s incorrect. Parents are instructed NOT to count their children if they are living away from home. That is why college students have to be counted on campus and at apartment complexes.

In paragraph 6, it explicitly states: But for college students living away from home, the process is different. Instead of being counted on their parents’ census forms, students are usually counted using the census’ “group quarters operation.”

By: N Alvarez

N Alvarez — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:40:02 +0000

lemme get this straight. US govt is counting college students that live in dorms and also when they are at home. is that right? didnt the census people think kind of double counting matters? seems like that is the bigger issue here.

By: Roman

Roman — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:40:34 +0000

Stony Brook really sucks at involving the community in anything these days, it seems.