The SCCS Video Pit is a space filled with an awesome projector, multiple consoles and lots of games, all provided free of charge for the entire Swarthmore campus and cared for by a group of volunteers.

This morning I came down to the SCCS space to find the Video Pit completely trashed. The guitars and controllers were everywhere, batteries scattered on the floor along with some fragments of potato chips and unidentified plastic things. There was a broken swivel chair lying upside down at the bottom of the pit. On the table with the games (which was also a mess of batteries, instruction manuals, and controllers) I found a paper cup with something that looked vaguely like strawberry ice cream in it (don’t know how long that was there).

I cleaned up the equipment, vacuumed the floor, and will attempt to fix the chair once I find some superglue. I don’t really understand what could have happened to leave the guitars without their shoulder straps, the mic stand without the little plastic stand piece, and the drum set without its foam sign thingie (all these pieces were not gone, but scattered around).

I know not everyone who uses the pit leaves it trashed. But it seems that every time I come down for office hours on Sunday morning, it is a mess. I am asking that whoever is leaving stuff in disarray please stop, and everyone take a little more notice of how the space looks when you leave.

I became an SCCS admin because I like to do cool stuff with computers, not because I like to clean up other people’s messes. Again, the Video Pit is a communal space provided free of charge, and it deserves a lot more respect. Clean up after yourself! Try to leave the space in a better state than you found it. If conscience isn’t motivation enough, we do have cameras! We can do better than this.