The Social Science Computing Cooperative has provided computing services to agencies and departments in the social sciences at UW-Madison for more than 30 years. The founding member of the Cooperative was the Center for Demography and Ecology, which decided to develop an autonomous computing capability in 1972. In 1984, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Rural Sociology and the Institute on Aging joined with CDE to share computing resources. The Institute for Research on Poverty joined in 1989 and the arrangement was formalized as the Social Science Computing Cooperative in 1990.
The Department of Economics joined in 1996. The Wisconsin Center for Education Research joined in 2002, becoming the SSCC’s first member outside the College of Letters and Science. The Center for Demography of Health and Aging joined in 2003, the School of Education in 2008, the Center for Financial Security in 2010 and the High Road Strategy Center (then known as the Center on Wisconsin Strategy) in 2011. In 2011, the Center for Financial Security’s membership was expanded to include all of the School of Human Ecology. The School of Education and Wisconsin Center for Education Research left the SSCC in 2015 due to budget constraints, but returned in 2024.
In 2019 the University of Wisconsin Survey Center, which has long had close ties to many SSCC members, officially joined the Cooperative. Also in 2019, the School of Medicine and Public Health became a member, drawn by SSCC’s secure computing environment for working with HIPAA and other sensitive data. In 2020 the Wisconsin School of Business joined the Cooperative to take advantage of SSCC’s server capabilities for their faculty and graduate student researchers.
In 2009 the SSCC created a new category of members for small research groups and individuals. Members of this type have come from the School of Pharmacy, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Department of Psychology, the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, General Internal Medicine, Agricultural & Applied Economics, Center for Healthy Minds, Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement, Educational Psychology, Information School, Political Science and others.
The SSCC also serves the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the National Survey of Families and Households, the Center for Law, Society & Justice, Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy, Social Science Research Services, and the Havens Wright Center for Social Justice, although they are not sustaining members.
Since 2006 the SSCC has provided instructional computing support for the Social Sciences division of the College of Letters and Science. This includes SSCC accounts and statistical consulting for all graduate students in the division, plus student accounts, computer labs, and consulting for classes that use statistical software. This was the result of merging the Social Science Microcomputing Lab into SSCC, which had instructional support as its primary mission.
The Cooperative is funded by annual contributions from its member agencies, making it a creature of those agencies. There are no fee-for-service charges for individuals. The governance structure of the SSCC is described by its charter.
The Chairs and Directors of the member agencies meet annually to review the expenses of the previous year, to consider the Cooperative’s expenditure plan for the coming year and to undertake their part of its support. The admission of new organizations to the SSCC requires a unanimous vote of this group. An organization may leave the SSCC at will but must give twelve months’ notice.
Policy guidance and oversight of the SSCC is provided by a Steering Committee made up of representatives of the sustaining member organizations appointed by relevant Chairs and Directors. Steering Committee members are appointed for a three-year term. The steering committee elects one of its members as Chair of the Steering Committee. The Chair is in charge of routine oversight of the SSCC and is supervisor of the SSCC’s Director. The current chair of the SSCC Steering Committee is Fabien Accominotti (Sociology).