Listserv Policies

• Bylaws
• Policy Document
• Procedures
• Guidelines
• Form

Terms

LISTSERV manager refers to Information Technology Services' designated manager of the LISTSERV service.

List sponsor refers to the actual LISTSERV list applicant (the person who submits the application as designated in item 2) who assumes overall responsibility for and ownership of the list.

List owner refers to a person (other than the LISTSERV manager) who has administrative rights to the list. This may or may not be the list sponsor.

List content refers to the theme, topic, or purpose of the list as declared on the list application and/or the theme, topic, or purpose of list postings.

List conduct may refer to the behavior of a list subscriber in the context of the list as reflected by the subscriber's postings.

Course list refers to special purpose list created (when requested) for communication between students enrolled in a specific course and section and the faculty member teaching the course.

Departmental (Majors) list refers to a list created (when requested) for a department to communicate with students in their major.

Establishing a LISTSERV List

List content must reasonably reflect the responsibilities, field of expertise, research, or study of the list sponsor as it relates to his/her function at the University.

List sponsors and owners are expected to abide by all computing resource usage policies put forth by Fredonia.

List Sponsorship/Ownership

Only permanent faculty/staff of the University may sponsor a list.

List owners are responsible for adequately communicating to the list membership (usually in the form of a charter/welcome message sent to all new subscribers) the guidelines for list posting. Owners should also ensure that their subscribers are aware of certain important list configuration settings (e.g., who can post, who can subscribe, etc.).

List owners are responsible for ensuring appropriate membership, as related to University functions.

List owners are responsible for updating the subscriber list and removing or suspending invalid or problematic addresses.

Institutional lists (i.e. announcements, news, proftalk) will be maintained by the ITS listserv manager.

List Content & Copyright

List subscribers, owners, and all others with list posting privileges are expected to observe all applicable copyright restrictions when posting any material that is not their own. The use of a mailing list to distribute any material (including binary files) in violation of copyright or licensing is strictly prohibited.

List Expiration & Renewal

All lists, except for class lists, expire on a yearly basis at the end of each spring semester (the week after the end of final exams). Class lists expire at the end of each semester (the week after the end of final exams). Lists that are less than 3 months old at the time of expiration will not expire until the end of following semester or academic year, whichever applies.

All list owners will be notified by e-mail at least four weeks prior to the expiration date. In order to renew a list, the list owner must reply to the notification stating his/her intent to renew the list.

If after two expiration notices the list owner has not declared intent to renew, the list will be deleted.

List sponsors may request explicitly at any time that their list be terminated by contacting the LISTSERV manager.

List Removal & Deletion

A list may be deleted at any time by the LISTSERV manager at the request of the list sponsor.

Information Technology Services reserves the right to delete lists that: (1) are misused; (2) do not comply with established policy; (3) pose a threat to system security or integrity. In such cases, the LISTSERV manager will attempt to notify the list sponsor and/or primary owner prior to the deletion of the list.

Our Rights

Information Technology Services provides LISTSERV mailing lists as a service to the University community. As such, Information Technology Services reserves the right to make alterations in the service at any time for the sake of the common good of all users.

The LISTSERV manager reserves the right to make changes to any list's configuration without notice in the following cases (not exhaustive): (1) to correct errors; (2) to make preferred changes or improvements; (3) where the list owner has been negligent or lax in conducting required list maintenance.

The LISTSERV manager reserves the right to restrict or deny any user's access to or privileges on LISTSERV with due cause. The LISTSERV software may automatically and selectively deny service to users based on bounced or excessive e-mail or other detected problems.