WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., March 29, 2021 — West Liberty University’s Highlands Center recently received recognition for being a partner with the US Census Bureau.
“I was pleased to receive an official thank you and US Census partner certificate in the mail as thank you for our work with census specialist Jennifer Rohrig. We were happy to help out in the important task of the decennial count,” said Savannah Scott, campus manager of the Highlands Center.
The Census Bureau’s mission is to serve as the nation’s leading provider of quality data about its people and economy. It does this by counting all citizens every 10 years.
Field data collection for the census ended last fall on Sept. 30, 2020. Due to the pandemic, census work was challenging and required more coordination with colleges. Rohrig served as one of the partnership specialists in the Philadelphia region and she visited WLU numerous times over the count.
“We helped Jennifer by distributing census counting information via email and social media. We at the Highlands and the entire university were happy to spread the word about the importance of an accurate count, deadlines and other information,” Scott added.
Being counted in the US census shows that every citizen matters, according to Scott. Billions of federal dollars are distributed for infrastructure, business placements, education, healthcare which helps create jobs and these distributions often rely on census data.
Beyond the social media and email sharing, the Highlands Center helped the US Census Bureau by offering a fall 2019 class in its Community University series for older adults that shared facts about the census and its importance. Rohrig was the instructor.
The Highlands Center hopes to offer Community University classes again next fall, depending on the pandemic. Other programs housed at the Highlands include the Regents Bachelor of Arts (RBA) Degree program and the Master of Education degree program.
The Highlands Center will be available for rental when pandemic safety precautions are no longer necessary.
The Highlands Center is located along Cabela Drive in the Highlands shopping complex, near the Marquee Cinema. For more information, please visit westliberty.edu/highlands or call 304.217.2800.