Swarthmore College Computer Society

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1 The Organization
2 Services to Students
3 Impact
4 External links

[edit] The Organization

The Swarthmore College Computer Society, or SCCS, is a campus organization at Swarthmore College, a small liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The SCCS is a student-run organization independent of the official ITS department of the college. There are very few student organizations like it in the entire country.

[edit] Services to Students

In addition to operating a set of servers that provide e-mail accounts, Unix shell login accounts, server storage space, and webspace to students, professors, alumni, and other student-run organizations, the SCCS hosts over 100 mailing lists used by various student groups, and over 130 organizational websites, including the website of the student newspaper, The Phoenix. The SCCS also provides a number of spaces that are open to members of the student body, as well as to faculty and staff:

A computer lab of Debian Linux and Mac OS X machines
A meeting space
A specialized library of computer books, indexed as part of the college library's collections
A digital darkroom with color calibrated negative scanning, editing and archival printing, used by the Photo Club and other students
An 8-foot projection screen with DVD, VCR, PlayStation 2, NES, Atari, and other gaming systems in the "Video Pit"

The computer lab and Video Pit together comprise the SCCS Media Lounge, located in Clothier basement beneath Essie Mae's snack bar. The SCCS staff is comprised of a select group of student volunteers who spend many hours each week keeping all of the services running.

[edit] Impact

In September 2003, the SCCS servers survived a Slashdotting while hosting a copy of the Diebold memos on behalf of the student group Free Culture Swarthmore, then known as the Swarthmore Coalition for the Digital Commons. SCCS staff promptly complied with the relevant DMCA takedown request received by the college's ITS department.

The SCCS was noted in PC Magazine's article "Top 20 Wired Colleges" as one of the reasons for ranking Swarthmore #4 on that list. During the 2004-2005 school year, the SCCS Media Lounge served as the early home of War News Radio, a weekly webcast run by Swarthmore students and providing news about the Iraq war.