Statistics 36-149: Freshman Seminar: Taking the U.S. Census in
2010
Spring, 2010
Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
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Course News:
1. Class web page to promote the census on
campus:
2. Census Bureau Director, Robert Groves, come to
class on March 25!
3. USA Today Article on the Census on Campus
featuring Christian Reyes:
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Instructor: Stephen E. Fienberg
Office: BH 132G
Tel: X8-2723
email: fienberg@stat.cmu.edu
Office hours: MW
1:30-2:30pm and by appointment.
Lectures: TR 10:30-11:50am PH 226C
Teaching Assistant:
April Galyardt
Office: BH 232G
E-mail: galyardt@stat.cmu.edu
Office hours: TBA
What this seminar is about: Every
ten
years, the federal government through the auspices
of the Bureau of the Census counts the population of the United States
and reports the results to
Congress. The official date for the next decennial census is April 1,
2010. In this class, we will
review the origin of the constitutional language on censustaking, and
study how the census has
changed over the 220 years since the first census in 1790. Censustaking
is both a technical activity
and a highly political one. We will examine some of the uses of census
data, such as congressional
reapportionment, and the related controversies over census accuracy.
Because the 2010 census will
"take place" in large part over the course of the semester, students
will have opportunities to observe
the process at first hand and to explore new controversies as they
arise.
Class Blogs: All
students will contribute on a regular basis to their blogs on the
website:
http://censusclass.ning.com/profiles/blogs/taking-the-us-census-in-2010
Texts and Other Readings
Class discussions will focus largely on assigned readings from two
books, the first of which should
be available from the CMU Bookstore.
1 Anderson, M. and Fienberg, S.E. (1999). Who Counts? The Politics of Census-Taking
in
Contemporary America, Russell
Sage Foundation, New York. Revised paperback edition
(2001).
2 Anderson, M. (1988). The American
Census: A Social History. Yale University Press, New
Haven. (paperback, 1990).
Other material will be distributed in class or made available on the
Web. Some examples are:
Anderson, M. and Fienberg,S.E. "Partisan Politics at Work: Sampling and
the 2000 Census,"
PS, December 2000.
Anderson, M. and Fienberg,S.E. "History, Myth Making and Statistics: A
Short Story about
the Reapportionment of Congress and the 1990 Census." PS, December, 2000.
in the December 2000 issue of PS.
These
papers and others by Lynne Billard and Thomas Brunell
plus various commentaries and replies are available from JSTOR or at:
http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/
fienberg/PSExchange.html
For an overview of the March 2001 Census Bureau decision not to adjust
the 2000 census data, see:
Anderson, M. and Fienberg, S.E. (2001) "Counting and estimation:
Methodology for improving
the quality of censuses. The U.S. 2000 Census adjustment decision."
Department of
Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University, Technical Report No. 746.
Available at:
http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/
fienberg/CensusAdjustment-Q2001.pdf
COURSE GRADING
There will be approximately 10 weekly writing assignments, due
electronically on Fridays at 5pm.
Although discussions among the students regarding these assignments is
permissible, each student's
content is to be their own. I will expect students to cite different
sources and describe different
personal experiences.
Every student will be expected to do a census-related project, e.g.,
serve as an enumerator, help
with the group census of the CMU campus, or do some form of census
outreach. One of the writing
assignments will be a report on the experiences associated with the
project.
There will also be a final essay assignment. Each student will choose
a different census-related
topic to be approved by Professor Fienberg. This assignment will be due
on Friday May 7 at 5pm.
The course grade will be based on the following allocation of effort:
(i) Class attendance and participation -- 25%
(ii) weekly writing assignments -- 25%
(iii) census-related activity project -- 25%
(iv) final essay -- 25%
FINAL ESSAY
During the month of April you will choose a topic for your nal essay.
There will be three assign-
ments linked to it:
- April 2 Topic and 1-paragraph description.
- April 15: First draft due.
- April 29: Second Draft due.
We will provide feedback on each of these submissions. The nal version
will be due on Friday May
7 at 5pm. Here are some speci cation we ask that you follow:
- Title page + 7 pages + references and tables and gures. The
title page should include, your name, the date, the class number, the
title of the paper, and a 100 word abstract or summary.
- Use 12pt Times New Roman font.
- Use 1 in. margins.
Class Schedule and Assigned Readings
The schedule of class activities and topics to be covered are in
flux. Please check here regularly for updates.
http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~fienberg/Statistics36-149-10/ClassSchedule.html
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Last Updated: March 23, 2010