>but no one's answered the question...what is the cost--hypothetical or not--of
>a listserv?  is this university-specific?
 
OK, I'll take a stab at a general cost outline.
 
        - Does your site charge external folks for CPU time and/or
          disk space?  If so, get the CPU and disk statistics from
          the system accounting logs and divide it among the lists;
          we could call that "mechanical cost."
 
        - You could probably figure out what percentage of your time
          is required for list maintenance; take the appropriate per-
          centage of your salary as "human resources cost."
 
        - Do you have a full-blown leased network line?  If so, fig-
          ure out what percentage of the capacity is used by your
          LISTSERV.  Figure that in as "transportation costs."
 
Do you see where this is going?  Every site's answer will be different,
but you can get a hypothetical number.  The BITNET site here (UKCC), for
example, once charged something like $600 per CPU hour.
 
It might be better to argue that the Congressman is simply availing
himself of the services of a public university.  I would suppose that
support of state/Federal government is a valid use of your systems;
I'd argue that such support should should be treated in the same fashion
as support given to students, faculty, and staff.
 
--Wes