The repreCENSUS campaign received national recognition by placing as an honorable mention in the national Bateman competition for promoting the Census at the University throughout the month of February.The Public Relations Society of America’s Bateman competition assigns students to design and implement a campaign throughout the month of February and analyze its success in March.Sixty-eight schools submitted entries to the Bateman competition this year.Judges ranked three schools as finalists and 16 as honorable mention.”We decided the judges were either going to love it or hate it,” said Bateman team member Jennie Armstrong.Five mass communication students — Jennie Armstrong, Bridget Cloud, Erica Fisher, Chelsey Laborde and Lauren St. Pierre — were selected to be part of the University’s Bateman team.The campaign took place in February, but the Bateman team spent eight months working on the project.Students applied for the Bateman team in September, and more than 20 students applied this year, Armstrong said.The five team members are selected by Manship School of Mass Communication faculty, and research for the project begins soon after, Armstrong said.”Every year it gets harder to make the team because you learn how much impact the campaign has,” Laborde said.In an initial survey by the repreCENSUS campaign, 64.1 percent of respondents said they knew little to nothing about the Census. Only 25 percent said they knew nothing about the Census in a poll after the campaign was implemented.The Bateman team tested potential themes on focus groups, friends and other community members.The team considered options like DefineBR and UncensorUS before choosing repreCENSUS.Bateman members were assigned a campaign last year for the Consumer Banker’s Association promoting an early start to saving for college, Laborde said.The target audiences of the campaigns were different, but the team used its work as a starting point to create the repreCENSUS campaign.The team met officially once a week for a five-hour class, but also met at the end of each day during February to plan and monitor the campaign.Laborde said the members had to be self-motivated because a repreCENSUS event was scheduled each day of February and end-of-day meetings sometimes didn’t begin until 10 p.m.”It took dedication — staying in Hodges until 3 a.m., checking your e-mail first thing every day and preparing for any situation that comes your way,” Cloud said.The Bateman team hopes its campaign will help participants in future competitions.”Our campaign will be a stepping stone for campaigns in future years,” Armstrong said.—-Contact Grace Montgomery at [email protected].