RCCs or Residential Computer Consultants are students living in the MIT dorms who assist fellow residents with various topics based on networking at MIT. Typically, there are between 25 to 30 Residential Computing Consultants at any time in the MIT residence halls. Each RCC is responsible for the dorm they live in and a designated group of two to three additional dormitories.
Most often, the RCCs deal with problems or questions related to networking in the dorms. The most common questions revolve around wireless and wired connectivity or lack there of.
Supported operating systems include: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
There are other systems that we do not officially support, but do see quite often and try to help when possible including: Older versions of Windows or Mac OS, other Linux distributions, PDAs and smart phones, Voice over IP adapters and even some Internet enabled video game consoles.
Supported applications: In addition to networking, the RCCs also support printing to the dorm printers with personal computers, configuring email clients for use at MIT (Outlook, Outlook express, Windows Mail, Apple Mail and Thunderbird), SecureCRT, SecureFTP, Fetch, Kerberos and some other IS&T supported software.
Broken network drops: If there is a problem with the network connection in a room, we will verify the problem and arrange to get it fixed. RCCs do not fix wiring problems directly, but do provide valuable information about the location and scope of a network outage. An RCC visit is required for every broken network drop report.
Printing at MIT: RCCs are the main contacts for printers in the dorms and will try to help people print to the dorm printer on request.
The residential computing consultants do have a large amount of responsibility and information to remain current on, but RCCs are not limited to a set schedule.
Performing the day-to-day routine of checking the help request queues generally takes only a few minutes (as well as checking voice mail) and can be done anytime. There are usually enough cases in the queue to give each RCC 2-5 hours of work per week. If an RCC has time for additional work, there's always opportunity for more hours.
Beginning of term: During fall move-in and orientation week, there is a higher demand for RCC help. During these two weeks prior to and after classes start there is generally a significant increase in hours.
RCCs are expected to keep very up to date on cases in their assigned dorm queues. Residents who come to the RCCs for help typically do so because a problem or situation is preventing them from doing schoolwork, research, checking email or performing other tasks that are vital to their day to day life at MIT.
RCCs are expected to:
- Check the RCC queue daily
- Check the RCC voice mail daily
- Respond to clients quickly and professionally
- Schedule in-room appointments when needed
- Help other RCCs with their queues or cases when asked
- Check on public workstations and printers in the dorms
- Attend biweekly meetings: Mondays at 5:15pm