unsubsscribe

Listserv Admin wrote:

> On Sun, 6 Aug 2000, stan wrote:
>
> > Thanks Daniel and Trish for your interestings ideas regarding subscribing
> > students to their respective Listserv lists. I had not considered just
> > creating one list per course, but its certainly easy enough for me to
> > implement. A couple of issues come to mind about that. How do you name
> > each list?
>
> This may not be something you have control of or input into at the
> administration level.  Fortunately, all of our course names are unique and
> never change, i.e., 4 character subject or department code (EDUC, MATH,
> STATS, CHEM, PSYC, etc.) and all of them have 3 digit course numbers
> assigned (EDUC203, MATH220, etc.) so we are in a position to create a
> mailing list for each class and never delete it unless the dept. tells us
> that the course will never be offered again. This is also how courses are
> identified in the student database, on student registration forms and
> listings in the course calendars.
>
> > <....> We
> > do not track instructors' email addresses so I cannot automatically assign
> > ownership of each list to the appropriate instructor so I am thinking of
> > assigning ownership of each of these lists to both the manager of our
> > computer services help desk AND the general helpdesk email address.
>
> I wanted to avoid this if at all possible so I didn't go that route,
> though we certainly could have and I'm sure it would have worked just
> fine. We had a policy in effect, even if it was a faculty member teaching
> a class, that they were responsible for the day to day management of the
> list. We just extended the policy and said "If you want a list, it belongs
> to you or your dept. and we do not want or have the authority to change
> list owners on your lists".  We encouraged depts with large numbers of
> mailing lists to designate a class list co-ordinator who, when completing
> the form for a new mailing list, would automatically have quiet list owner
> status on the list.  When a faculty member in a new term says "I'm
> teaching MATH 334, but I don't have access to MATH334-L", we refer them to
> the class list co-ordinator in the Math & Stats Dept.
>
> > What I would also like to do is set up a separate subdirectory under
> > ~listserv/home for each semester, such as fall2000, summer1, spring2001,
> > and so on and keep the list's and their archived postings in those directores
> > so that I can easily archive and delete them at the end of each semester.
>
> I ran into a similar problem because Listserv does not permit multiple
> directories for the web archives so I couldn't keep the courses together
> as I could the ones without archives.  However, I keep a single file that
> lists the listnames of all class mailing lists and run a script to delete
> all archives of those mailing lists.  I also have a web form so that the
> instructor can do it as well, whenever they want.  Because instructors use
> a web form to update/add their own students automatically, there was no
> need to separate mailing lists into fall200, summer1, etc.  They use the
> same list header as a previous instructor and alter it depending on how
> they want to run their list when they teach the course.  When they add a
> new set of students for a new Term, the old list of students is
> automatically removed/deleted at that time.
>
> > <...> I figure its easier (and cheaper on
> > disk space) to just delete each semester's set of course related lists and
> > create new ones starting a few days prior to the start of the comining
> > semester. Does this sound reasonable?
>
> If the deletion of lists and archives and the creation of new lists is
> automated, it is reasonable. :-)  I would be doing the same thing if I had
> assumed responsibility for changing list owners on course mailing lists.
>
> I know I have made it sound like the concept of a "class mailing list
> co-ordinator"  dumps most of the responsibility and work onto
> faculty/depts leaving me and our helpdesk free to do other things.
> However, from a customer service perspective, it has really turned out to
> be a benefit for everyone: 1. class list co-ordinators (or course
> administrators as some like to call themselves) actually like having the
> control over their dept mailing lists (empowerment) and of course they
> like the title, 2. It also puts the entire class mailing list process,
> including any decisions, closer to the customer, i.e., in the individual
> depts.  I'm confident that if I were to do what you are planning, I would
> get a fight for control.  People grumble when you give them
> responsibility, control and authority and they also grumble if you try to
> take it away. ;-)
>
> Sorry this is so long. I hope the information is of some use.
>
> --Trish