SCCS

Est. 1991

About SCCS

We're the Swarthmore College Computer Society, or SCCS for short: a student-run group offering computing services, tools, toys, and information to the Swarthmore College community. Our goal is not to mirror ITS, but to complement and supplement widely available services by providing resources that would otherwise be out of the reach of individuals. For our part, SCCS Staff learn extremely practical system administration and software development skills—the stuff you can't learn in a CS lecture.

The early years

A short history of keeping things running.

The original record is full of overloaded machines, improvised spaces, and students learning enough to solve the next problem. A few chapters still define SCCS today.

1991–92

The beginning

Before campus Wi-Fi, there was phone cable.

Students in Dana and Hallowell built an AppleTalk network by stringing phone cable between dorm rooms. Around 32 Macintoshes across four floors and one heavy-duty laser printer shared that network—two years before the College network existed.

The project helped bring SCCS together, and the group received its official charter for the spring 1992 semester. Keeping the network alive meant tracking down near-daily outages, often caused by cables pinched in window frames.

Founding members

A.C. Capehart ’92, Robert Richardson ’95, Geoffrey Noer ’95, Daniel Wells ’96, and Marc Rieffel ’94.

1992–94

Raptor takes flight

Student Unix access—and an early home on the web.

When the College planned to retire general student Unix access, SCCS helped negotiate a new path. The former student machine Hemlock, a DECstation 5000/200, was donated to the group and renamed Raptor. It became a login machine, mail server, software host, and home for campus mailing lists.

By the end of the 1993–94 year, Raptor served several hundred accounts. SCCS also brought up an NCSA web server, hosting student pages at a moment when the World Wide Web itself was still new.

1994–96

Growing pains

Six hundred users called for a second bird.

Heavy web traffic and more than 600 users pushed Raptor beyond its comfortable limits. SCCS acquired a DEC Alpha named Condor, then split duties across a two-machine cluster: Raptor served web pages while Condor handled logins and other services.

The organization matured alongside its infrastructure. A new constitution created executive and policy boards, and webmaster became an official role open to contributors beyond the systems administration team.

1996–98

Failure, recovery, and the Aviary

Hardware died. The institution did not.

Raptor eventually suffered a fatal motherboard failure. SCCS replaced it with a Linux machine named Kestrel and kept its services moving—a pattern of recovery and reinvention that remains familiar to student maintainers today.

Soon after, SCCS was granted a permanent room on Parrish’s fifth floor. The space became known as the Aviary, continuing the bird-name tradition even as construction delays and a long power outage tested the machines waiting below campus.

Digital archaeology

Our archive is part of the service.

SCCS hosts decades of student-created sites: campus histories, cultural projects, and a wonderfully 1990s account of SCCS itself.

The History of SCCSSwarthmore building historyFree Culture SwarthmoreBook and Key history

Joining the organization

Statement on application strategy

How SCCS approaches its semesterly staff application cycle.

SCCS has an application cycle each semester. We interview, select, and retain staff based on experience, interest, activity, and occasionally interpersonal relationships.

SCCS does not discriminate based on protected or other personal attributes, with the exceptions of relevant computer science knowledge and interpersonal conflicts.

You lose nothing by applying. If you are not selected, you can apply again the following semester, and we give priority to reapplicants. Some of our most active members initially missed coding questions or applied more than once.

We know people who feel underqualified can be less likely to finish an application. We want you to apply even if you are uncertain about your experience.