UBIT Policy: LISTSERV

Category: Information Technology

Responsible Office: Enterprise Infrastructure Services

Responsible Executive: Vice President and Chief Information Officer (VPCIO)

Date Established: November 12, 2009

Date Revised: June 14, 2024

The Vice President and Chief Information Officer’s area provides the LISTSERV mailing list service for University-related communications.

A LISTSERV mailing list is created for the university mission of research, education and service. The university LISTSERV mailing list service is not a national mailing list service provider.

• As an academic institution and a New York State government entity, the University at Buffalo supports the right to freedom of speech. The discussion of unpopular views is important in a free and democratic society. VPCIO staff will not remove content from LISTSERV archives unless the content is in clear violation of university policies or Federal or State laws. VPCIO staff do not monitor LISTSERV message content or list archives.
• List owners are primarily responsible for editing or removing a post at the request of the person who submitted the post.

Any LISTSERV containing the entirety of any UB affiliation (such as faculty, staff, students, retirees, volunteers, alumni, etc.) are required to be moderated. Moderating listservs prevents spoofed email or mistakenly composed email from going out to these large groups.

• VPCIO area does not monitor subscribers.

• Archived messages are retained for a maximum of five years.
• The VPCIO area reserves the right to remove archives from individual lists that use excessive amounts of storage.

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Violations of this policy will result in appropriate disciplinary measures in accordance with university policies, applicable collective bargaining agreements, and state and federal laws.

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This policy applies to LISTSERV owners, editors, moderators, subscribers, and VPCIO area staff who provide support to the LISTSERV service.  

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LISTSERV: A software which allows individuals to create, manage, and control electronic mailing lists.

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• Creates large official institutional lists such all students, all staff, all faculty, maintains the application (LISTSERV), periodically reviews mailing lists for active status, and supports the UBIT Help Center
• Annually reviews list owners. 
  • Lists can have multiple owners
  • Each list must have at least one owner who is a current UB employee (faculty or staff affiliation).  If a list does not have such an owner, Enterprise Infrastructure Services will make a reasonable attempt to find one.  If a suitable new owner cannot be found, the list and its archive will be deleted

• Provides support for list owners, editors, moderators, and subscribers, assisting in resolving problems related to their lists
• Escalates technical problems to Enterprise Infrastructure Services when needed

• Requests a list, name the list, and set up the list configuration. List names are required to follow the UB standard.
• Monitors discussion and content of messages and archives
• Establishes and enforces rules of conduct for the list
• List owners are also responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of their list(s), including adding and deleting subscribers, answering questions from list subscribers, and assisting UBIT in resolving problems related to the list(s)
• Is responsible for requesting removal of a list that is no longer needed or used
• The LISTSERV owner must be a current university employee

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Director of Enterprise Infrastructure Services
305C Computing Center
University at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260
Phone: 716-645-3031

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Computing and Network Use Policy

LISTSERV for Group Email

LISTSERV Procedures

Mass Digital Communications Policy

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