Note
Use this page to separate two questions. The undergraduate dashboard asks what students can major, minor, or earn credit in. This page asks whether the institution has adjacent PPE, political economy, civic thought, democracy, public service, or civic engagement infrastructure that may shape the path from center to curriculum, curriculum to center, or both.
Ecosystem Explorer
This explorer contains the current public ecosystem universe: 203 included, official-source entity records. Internal working counts may be larger because candidate queues, retired records, and records moved out of the undergraduate database are kept for audit and review, but they are not part of the charts below until promoted into active ecosystem JSON. Undergraduate majors, minors, certificates, concentrations, and BA/MA pathways live in the UG database and are connected here only through explicit curriculum-link records. Entity type and ecosystem family are project classifications; the official name and source remain visible for readers who want to inspect the underlying record.
Use the filters to browse by region, state, domain, and entity type. Select any row to see the recorded source link and the best available start/date evidence.
Ecosystem records
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| Institution | Entity | Region | State | Type | Domain | Start | Source | Founding source |
|---|
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Ecosystem Patterns
The charts below use the same family labels as the explorer. Unless otherwise noted, counts use all records currently visible in the ecosystem explorer universe.
Classification Legend
The ecosystem family labels are project-coded analytic categories, not necessarily the labels an institution uses for itself. We keep the official name and source URL in the explorer, then normalize each record into a family and entity type so centers, institutes, fellowships, workshops, and initiatives can be compared across institutions.
Entity type follows official self-description when the source clearly says “center,” “institute,” “fellowship,” “workshop,” or a similar form. When the official language is ambiguous, the research team assigns the nearest controlled-vocabulary label from the ecosystem schema. Seed spreadsheet tags are treated as leads, not canonical evidence.
| Label | Working definition |
|---|---|
| Civic engagement / public service | Undergraduate-facing civic engagement, community engagement, public service, service-learning, or public-policy infrastructure. |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Programs organized around democracy, deliberation, dialogue across difference, civil discourse, civic participation, or democratic practice. |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Civic thought, constitutional studies, Great Books, citizenship, civic humanities, or public-life programs centered on texts, institutions, and ideas. |
| Civic leadership | Programs whose official purpose centers on civic, ethical, or public leadership formation. |
| PPE / political economy | PPE, political economy, and related interdisciplinary economics-and-public-life infrastructure. |
| Adjacent infrastructure | A residual category for relevant institutions, centers, or initiatives that support the PPE/civic ecosystem but whose official description does not fit the more specific families above. |
Entity Type By Ecosystem Family
This chart describes the organizational form of each ecosystem record after normalization. It should be read as a map of institutional infrastructure, not as a measure of program size, student participation, budget, or curricular rigor. A “center” and a “fellowship” each count once, even if their scale is very different.
Curriculum Linkage
This chart asks whether an ecosystem record is currently linked in our data to a same-institution undergraduate credential, such as a major, minor, certificate, or related course pathway. “No linked undergraduate program yet” does not necessarily mean the institution has no relevant curriculum; it means that this ecosystem record has not yet been connected to a captured undergraduate program in the current dataset.
DESK Capacity Profile
This heatmap uses the ecosystem entity universe. Cell values are proportions among entities with at least one extracted DESK capacity code; the row label shows provisionally DESK-coded entities over the full family total. These codes come from the current JSON extraction and should be treated as provisional analysis rather than final reviewed coding. DESK judgments are non-exclusive and evidence-backed. A blank or n/a cell means that no extracted DESK capacity code is available yet, not that the capacity is absent.
DESK capacity definitions. These codes are non-exclusive and are assigned only when official-source text supports them. The current figure reports the latest extracted coding; a full DESK review pass is still needed before treating these values as publication-final.
- Knowledge: structured academic instruction in civic or political knowledge, such as credit-bearing courses or curricular work on political theory, constitutionalism, public institutions, law, civic ideals, or self-government.
- Skill: practical civic capacity-building, such as training in dialogue across difference, civil discourse, facilitation, organizing, public communication, leadership, or relationship-building.
- Disposition: civic, moral, ethical, religious, or character formation: language about virtue, responsibility, judgment, civic identity, or how students ought to live and act as citizens.
- Experience: direct participation in civic, political, communal, or public-facing settings, including service, community engagement, internships, fellowships, mentoring, volunteering, public-interest work, or applied civic projects.
Founding And Start-Date Evidence
Date evidence can identify founding, establishment, launch, first public programming, first official appearance, or a related dated event. The explorer links each row to the underlying founding/date source when one has been recorded. This is a coverage chart, not a definitive institutional-history timeline: older entities are easier to miss when archives are thin, and recent entities are easier to date when launch pages are still online.
Entity Orientation
This chart summarizes the audiences and functions recorded in verified ecosystem JSON files. The categories overlap: a center can be undergraduate facing, student facing, public facing, and credential offering at the same time. The counts therefore show coded traits, not mutually exclusive institutional types.
Geography
The map shows the state distribution of ecosystem records currently in the explorer. It is useful for spotting regional concentration and collection coverage, but it should not yet be read as a complete census of all civic/PPE infrastructure in each state. States with many well-documented institutions can look denser simply because the review pipeline has found and verified more records there.
Supporting Tables
These tables use the same public ecosystem family labels as the explorer and the charts above. DESK capacity counts use the current extracted JSON capacity codes and should be read as provisional until the review/backfill pass is complete; the family denominator also shows the full included ecosystem universe.
| Ecosystem type | Ecosystem family | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Center | Civic engagement / public service | 53 |
| Initiative | Civic engagement / public service | 16 |
| Co curricular program | Civic engagement / public service | 14 |
| Institute | Civic engagement / public service | 9 |
| Other | Civic engagement / public service | 3 |
| Fellowship | Civic engagement / public service | 1 |
| Network | Civic engagement / public service | 1 |
| Initiative | Democracy / civil discourse | 21 |
| Center | Democracy / civil discourse | 8 |
| Co curricular program | Democracy / civil discourse | 6 |
| Institute | Democracy / civil discourse | 1 |
| Lab | Democracy / civil discourse | 1 |
| Other | Democracy / civil discourse | 1 |
| Speaker series | Democracy / civil discourse | 1 |
| Workshop | Democracy / civil discourse | 1 |
| Center | Civic thought / constitutionalism | 12 |
| Institute | Civic thought / constitutionalism | 7 |
| Other | Civic thought / constitutionalism | 7 |
| Initiative | Civic thought / constitutionalism | 6 |
| Fellowship | Civic thought / constitutionalism | 2 |
| Gen ed reform | Civic thought / constitutionalism | 1 |
| Lab | Civic thought / constitutionalism | 1 |
| Center | Civic leadership | 7 |
| Co curricular program | Civic leadership | 5 |
| Institute | Civic leadership | 2 |
| Fellowship | Civic leadership | 1 |
| Initiative | Civic leadership | 1 |
| Other | Civic leadership | 1 |
| Center | PPE / political economy | 2 |
| Workshop | PPE / political economy | 1 |
| Center | Adjacent infrastructure | 5 |
| Fellowship | Adjacent infrastructure | 2 |
| Other | Adjacent infrastructure | 2 |
| Institute | Adjacent infrastructure | 1 |
| Ecosystem family | Curriculum link | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Civic engagement / public service | No linked undergraduate program yet | 52 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Linked undergraduate program | 45 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Linked undergraduate program | 21 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | No linked undergraduate program yet | 19 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | No linked undergraduate program yet | 21 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Linked undergraduate program | 15 |
| Civic leadership | No linked undergraduate program yet | 10 |
| Civic leadership | Linked undergraduate program | 7 |
| PPE / political economy | Linked undergraduate program | 2 |
| PPE / political economy | No linked undergraduate program yet | 1 |
| Adjacent infrastructure | No linked undergraduate program yet | 10 |
| Ecosystem family | Provisional DESK n | Family N | DESK capacity | Supported | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civic engagement / public service | 97 | 97 | Knowledge | 36 | 37% |
| Civic engagement / public service | 97 | 97 | Skill | 75 | 77% |
| Civic engagement / public service | 97 | 97 | Disposition | 21 | 22% |
| Civic engagement / public service | 97 | 97 | Experience | 92 | 95% |
| Democracy / civil discourse | 40 | 40 | Knowledge | 10 | 25% |
| Democracy / civil discourse | 40 | 40 | Skill | 37 | 92% |
| Democracy / civil discourse | 40 | 40 | Disposition | 14 | 35% |
| Democracy / civil discourse | 40 | 40 | Experience | 20 | 50% |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | 36 | 36 | Knowledge | 28 | 78% |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | 36 | 36 | Skill | 24 | 67% |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | 36 | 36 | Disposition | 24 | 67% |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | 36 | 36 | Experience | 22 | 61% |
| Civic leadership | 17 | 17 | Knowledge | 7 | 41% |
| Civic leadership | 17 | 17 | Skill | 14 | 82% |
| Civic leadership | 17 | 17 | Disposition | 8 | 47% |
| Civic leadership | 17 | 17 | Experience | 14 | 82% |
| PPE / political economy | 3 | 3 | Knowledge | 1 | 33% |
| PPE / political economy | 3 | 3 | Skill | 2 | 67% |
| PPE / political economy | 3 | 3 | Disposition | 1 | 33% |
| PPE / political economy | 3 | 3 | Experience | 2 | 67% |
| Adjacent infrastructure | 10 | 10 | Knowledge | 4 | 40% |
| Adjacent infrastructure | 10 | 10 | Skill | 10 | 100% |
| Adjacent infrastructure | 10 | 10 | Disposition | 9 | 90% |
| Adjacent infrastructure | 10 | 10 | Experience | 8 | 80% |
| Ecosystem family | Ecosystem type | Date evidence | Records |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civic engagement / public service | Center | No date evidence yet | 2 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Center | Has date evidence | 51 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Co curricular program | Has date evidence | 14 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Fellowship | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Initiative | Has date evidence | 16 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Institute | No date evidence yet | 1 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Institute | Has date evidence | 8 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Network | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Civic engagement / public service | Other | Has date evidence | 3 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Center | Has date evidence | 8 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Co curricular program | Has date evidence | 6 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Initiative | Has date evidence | 21 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Institute | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Lab | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Other | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Speaker series | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Democracy / civil discourse | Workshop | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Center | No date evidence yet | 2 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Center | Has date evidence | 10 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Fellowship | Has date evidence | 2 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Gen ed reform | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Initiative | Has date evidence | 6 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Institute | Has date evidence | 7 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Lab | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Civic thought / constitutionalism | Other | Has date evidence | 7 |
| Civic leadership | Center | No date evidence yet | 1 |
| Civic leadership | Center | Has date evidence | 6 |
| Civic leadership | Co curricular program | Has date evidence | 5 |
| Civic leadership | Fellowship | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Civic leadership | Initiative | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Civic leadership | Institute | Has date evidence | 2 |
| Civic leadership | Other | Has date evidence | 1 |
| PPE / political economy | Center | Has date evidence | 2 |
| PPE / political economy | Workshop | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Adjacent infrastructure | Center | Has date evidence | 5 |
| Adjacent infrastructure | Fellowship | Has date evidence | 2 |
| Adjacent infrastructure | Institute | Has date evidence | 1 |
| Adjacent infrastructure | Other | Has date evidence | 2 |
Collection Plan
The discovery problem is different from undergraduate program discovery. Majors, minors, and certificates usually appear in catalogs; centers and initiatives are distributed across academic units, public-service offices, donor-funded schools, student-life offices, and institute pages. A good process should therefore begin with the universe of US higher education institutions, use structured search to triage candidates, and then promote only official-source confirmations into the JSON-first dataset.
| Step | Purpose | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Keep the undergraduate program registry as the anchor | Centers and extracurricular initiatives are tracked because they help explain the trajectory of undergraduate programs, not because this page is yet a complete census. | Every ecosystem record should link back to a curriculum institution when a major, minor, certificate, or related undergraduate program exists. |
| 2. Build JSON-first center records | Use official center, institute, school, program, and university pages to collect existence, scope, institutional location, and relationship to curriculum. | A separate center/initiative JSON schema with fields for entity type, domain, official URL, relationship to curriculum, launch/status, and evidence notes. |
| 3. Start from all US higher education institutions | Avoid relying only on known networks, spreadsheets, or prominent R1 examples. | A national triage queue keyed by IPEDS unitid and institution name. |
| 4. Triage with structured web search | Search institution-by-institution for terms such as PPE center, political economy center, civic thought, civic leadership, democracy institute, constitutional studies, public service, deliberation, and civic engagement. | Candidate records tagged as likely match, possible match, false positive, or needs human review. |
| 5. Verify only from official sources | External spreadsheets, Airtable lists, and web search results should identify candidates, not establish canonical records. | Canonical ecosystem records only after official-source review. |
| 6. Track institutional evolution over time | The key research value is seeing how centers, institutes, initiatives, and undergraduate programs develop in relation to one another. | Longitudinal notes for cases where a center or institute becomes a school, department, major, minor, or certificate. |