Class Announcement Lists

Every section of every course has an e-mail list. All courses taught at the Law School have a list automatically created for that course. The format of the list e-mail address is LAWcccc-ss@lists.law.uconn.edu (where ccc is the catalog number and ss is the section).

Students, instructors, and faculty support staff are automatically added to the class list. Students and instructors are added to lists in which they are enrolled or teaching. Faculty support staff are added to all lists. Other e-mail addresses can be added to the lists.

Class announcement lists are moderated lists. Only instructors and faculty support staff (the "list owners") can send messages to the class announcement list. Other messages are held for approval or rejection by the list owners.

Table of Contents

Your List Information Page

Each Class Announcement List has a series of web pages through which all of the functions associated with the mailing list can be accomplished. This is referred to as the "listinfo" page. You can reach your list's listinfo page in one of two ways:

  1. Key the URL. The URL to your listinfo page is http://www.law.uconn.edu/mailman/listinfo/LAWcccc-ss. For instance: http://www.law.uconn.edu/mailman/listinfo/LAW7500-01
  2. From faculty profile pages. Under the heading "Recent Courses Taught", select the course, then the "Class Announcements List" link.

Sending Messages

The class lists are stored on a machine other than the e-mail server, so you must type the full address of the list in order to send a message. These course lists will not appear in the e-mail server Global Address Book. You can start your e-mail message in one of two ways:

  1. From the listinfo page. On the listinfo page, under the heading "Using LAWccc-ss", there is a sentence that begins with "To post a message..." and ends with a link to an e-mail address. Select the address link.
  2. Key the e-mail address. The format of the list e-mail address is LAWcccc-ss@lists.law.uconn.edu. Begin a new e-mail message and type that address into the "To" field.

After addressing your message in one of these two ways, continue composing and sending the message as your normally would. When you send it, it will be sent to all students and instructors for the class as well as all of the faculty support staff.

List Administrative Functions and List Password

Each class list has a set of administrative function web pages for adding and removing students from the list as well as tending to requests by students to be added or to post messages to the list. You can reach the General List Administration page by selecting the "LAW7501-02 administrative interface (requires authorization)" link at the bottom of the "listinfo" page.

The administrative functions are protected by a password. The password is the same for all Class Announcements Lists, and will be sent to all faculty and faculty support staff by Information Systems staff.

The administrative functions page has an overwhelming number of options. All of these options are set to their required values, so they can be ignore except in the situations described below. All list options are automatically reset by the student loading program so changes made here will be lost.

Adding Students to the List

Students are automatically added to the lists based on data from the Registrar in the PeopleSoft system. Lists are created and the initial batch of students added to the lists a few weeks before the beginning of the semester. During Drop/Add period, students who have registered for a class are added to the class list overnight. After Drop/Add period, students who add a class are added to the class list Tuesday mornings.

You can also add other e-mail addresses to the list if you choose. From the "General List Administration" screen, select "Membership Management". At the bottom of this screen there is a box where you can enter new e-mail addresses, one per line. When finished, select "Submit Your Changes" at the bottom of the page.

Students themselves may also request a subscription to the class list. You receive an e-mail message with the subject "New subscription request to list..." when this happens. Handling this message is covered in a section below.

Students are not automatically removed from lists when they drop a course. See the instructions below on how to remove students.

Removing Students from the List

Students are not automatically removed from lists when they drop a course. The student may choose to unsubscribe from the list, or you can use the list administration functions to remove them. From the "General List Administration" screen, follow the link for "Membership Management." For the appropriate e-mail address, uncheck the "subscr" column (the first column of checkboxes) and select "Submit Your Changes" at the bottom of the page.

Handling "New subscription request to list..." Messages

Students may request to join a Class Announcement List. It is up to the list owners (the class instructor(s) and the faculty support staff) to decide whether or not to approve the request. Requests will come in the form of e-mail messages with the subject "New subscription request to list LAWcccc-ss from e-mail@law.uconn.edu". A URL is included in the e-mail to the "admindb" screen. The list password is required to view this page (see List Administrative Functions above). A link to this page is also available from your "General List Administration" page with the label "Tend to pending administrative requests".

Towards the bottom of the page there is a "Subscription Requests" heading where you can choose to accept or reject the request. After making your selection and optionally typing in a reply message, select the "Submit All Data" button at the bottom of the screen.

Handling "LAWccc-ss post...requires approval" Messages

Students may send messages to a Class Announcement List. Since these lists are moderated, it is up to the list owners (the class instructor(s) and the faculty support staff) to decide whether or not to approve the message. Requests will come in the form of e-mail messages with the subject "LAWccc-ss post from e-mail@law.uconn.edu requires approval". A URL is included in the e-mail to the "admindb" screen. The list password is required to view this page (see List Administrative Functions above). A link to this page is also available from your "General List Administration" page with the label "Tend to pending administrative requests".

Towards the bottom of the page there is a "Posting Held for Approval" heading where you can choose to approve, reject (send a reply back to the sender) or discard (no reply is sent to the sender) the request. After making your selection and optionally typing in a reply message (a default explanation is provided), select the "Submit All Data" button at the bottom of the screen.

Questions and Answers

Q. What is the difference between the list administrative password and the password I received in an e-mail message announcing my subscription to the list?

A. In addition to each list itself having an administrative password (which is the same for all class announcement lists), each e-mail address on the list has a personal password. The personal password is unique to each e-mail address subscribed to the list. Even as a list owner, you are also subscribed to the list, so you will have the list administrative password and your personal password.

The list administrative password is used to process subscription requests or the approval of a message from someone other than list owners. The personal password can be used for several list functions such as viewing the archives, setting options, and unsubscribing from the list.