Dewey is pleased to announce a new data partnership with the Civic Mapping Initiative (CMI). CMI’s curated list of every community and technical college campus and satellite location in the United States is now available for free through the Dewey platform, enabling research into the regional distribution and accessibility of postsecondary education. Using a subset of this data, CMI’s sponsor, the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation, found that only 57% of community and technical colleges’ main campuses are located within walking distance of a public transit stop, even though many students depend on public transportation in order to further their studies. CMI’s work has been featured in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today and NPR Marketplace, among others.
What is the Civic Mapping Initiative?
The Civic Mapping Initiative is sponsored by the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation, which mapped the transit accessibility of community and technical college main campuses in the United States in 2021. CMI is currently working on expanding the original map and transportation dataset to include all campus and satellite locations; the team is releasing additional states and regions every month until completion in late 2023. CMI leverages public transportation data to identify gaps in accessibility to public services throughout the country and highlight areas for improvement
"It's well known that transportation can be a major barrier to accessing public resources, but there typically aren't good estimates of the size and distribution of these obstacles. At CMI, we identify and locate the barriers more specifically, shining a light on previously unseeable targets that can often be addressed with modest resource investments or even simply better coordination between public entities," said Dr. Matt Crespi, who co-founded CMI with Abigail Seldin.
What type of data does CMI have?
Through the Dewey platform, CMI provides open access to their CASL – Campus And Satellite Location – dataset (a compilation led by Dr. Ellie Bruecker), which contains 3600+ community college, satellite campus, and technical school location data points collected from the federal Postsecondary Education Participants System (PEPS), state systems, and the websites of individual institutions. CMI verified and geolocated the addresses.
How can I access CMI data for academic research?
The Civic Mapping Initiative’s data is freely available to all via the Dewey platform. Simply make an account, download your free data, and start researching.
Questions about CMI
Questions about the Civic Mapping Initiative data? Or just curious about what others are using it for? Check out the latest discussion in the Dewey community by searching tag Civic-Mapping.