Listserv Mailing Lists

Listserv mailing lists are available to Columbia students, faculty, researchers and staff for managing mass communications (event notifications, news updates, discussion threads) to student groups, clubs, cross-departmental teams, faculty committees, and more.

Listserv is for mass communication announcements across campuses, not for daily communication or operational tasks. For those purposes, request a Grouper mailing list or a Google Group request.

Please note that all Columbia University students who wish to request and administer a Listserv will need faculty or staff sponsorship to do so. Once the list is created, both the student and the faculty/staff member will be designated as admins so we can avoid having an "orphaned" list when students graduate.

For all CUIMC users please contact CUIMC IT support. Please visit CUIMC IT's Mailing Lists in Listserv page or email [email protected].

Please see the Mailing List Management page to learn about other types of mailing lists that CUIT offers.

You can manage your mailing list at https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe.

Mailing list usage guidelines

All Email Usage Policy requirements apply, in addition to the following:

All Columbia University Students who wish to request and administer a listserv list. You will need faculty or staff sponsorship to do so.
Columbia mailing lists are available for student organizations, business, research, and academic-related communications.
Owners, Editors, and/or Moderators can only be Columbia/CUIMC email addresses. External addresses such as Gmail cannot be an owner. External email addresses, including Gmail, are prohibited and will be subject to removal.
List Owners that are leaving Columbia must open a ticket with the CUIT Service Desk to ensure proper transfer of ownership or discuss if discontinuing the list if appropriate.
If a list is not used for over one year, it is automatically deactivated by the Listserv system.
It is the department or group's responsibility to properly manage those who have access or are subscribed. Make sure you have set up a procedure to regularly check and are removing or updating subscribers. Any who unsubscribes should not be re-added in the future unless they have requested to be re-added.

Listserv mailing list roles

Subscriber: Individual who receives messages sent to the list.
Owner: The individual(s) responsible for adding or removing Subscribers, Editors and Moderators and maintaining other settings. An Owner can also add other Owner(s), and can moderate messages. An Owner must be provided when a list is requested. IMPORTANT: Submit a ticket if the Owner of a list is leaving Columbia University.
Editor(s): Those who can send messages to the list without requiring approval, even on a Moderated list.
Moderator(s): Needed for Moderated discussion lists only. Moderators approve messages that non-Editors send to the list. After being approved, the message is sent to all list subscribers.

Modify list configuration and members
Listserv: Owner
Mailman: Owner

Approve messages
Listserv: Owner, Editor, Moderator
Mailman: Owner, Moderator

Send to list without moderation
Listserv: Owner, Editor, Moderator
Mailman: Configurable

Require confirmation of own posting
Listserv: Optional for Owner, Editor, Moderator and all Senders (If confirmation is not enabled, messages from Owners, Editors and Moderators will be automatically sent to the list)
Mailman: N/A

Receive moderation requests
Listserv: Defaults to All Moderators (Configurable to Round-Robin Moderators under List Configuration --> Administrators --> Moderator)
Mailman: Owner, Moderator

The lists below are synced daily each morning and can be used in combination to make your own list if needed.

Listserv Dynamic Lists

List Name: HSEMPS
Description: All Medical Campus Employees (Officers & Faculty)

List Name: HSEMPS-FULLTIME
Description: All Medical Campus Fulltime Employees (Officers & Faculty)

List Name: HSEMPS-NOSO
Description: All Medical Campus Employees (Officers & Faculty but no Student Officers)

List Name: HSFAC
Description: All Medical Campus Faculty

List Name: HSFAC-FULLTIME
Description: All Medical Campus Fulltime Faculty

List Name: ALL-HS-STUDENTS
Description: All Medical Campus Graduate Students

List Name: HSOFF
Description: All Medical Campus Officers

List Name: HSOFF-FULLTIME
Description: All Medical Campus Fulltime Officers

List Name: HSRSCH
Description: All Medical Campus Officers of Research

List Name: MSEMPS
Description: All Columbia Morningside Campus Employees (Officers & Faculty) [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: MSEMPS-FULLTIME
Description: All Columbia Morningside Campus Fulltime Employees (Officers & Faculty) [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: MSEMPS-NOSO
Description: All Columbia Morningside Campus Employees (Officers & Faculty but no Student Officers) [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: MSFAC
Description: All Columbia Morningside Campus Faculty [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: MSFAC-FULLTIME
Description: All Columbia Morningside Campus Fulltime Faculty [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: MSOFF
Description: All Columbia Morningside Campus Officers [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: MSOFF-FULLTIME
Description: All Columbia Morningside Campus Fulltime Officers [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: ALL-MS-GRADS
Description: All Columbia Morningside Graduate Students [No Barnard or TC]

List Name: ALL-MS-UGRADS
Description: All Columbia Morningside Undergraduate Students [No Barnard or TC]

Listserv Video Tutorials

How to manage email lists using the Listserv web interface

How to subscribe to a Listserv list

How to add multiple list subscribers at one time in Listserv

How to change your Listserv subscription email address

How do I create welcome and farewell messages in Listserv

How to change or add list owners in Listserv

How do I...

Mailing List Owners manage their list(s) in the Listserv web portal.

If you have not used Listserv to manage a mailing list before, you must first register your email address.

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe.
Select Log In in the upper-right corner and click Register Password.
Enter your [email protected] email address and a non-UNI password (**IMPORTANT** Do NOT use your Columbia password!)
You will receive an email from Listserv to confirm your request; use the link in the message to confirm.

If you receive a mailing from an email address ending in @lists.columbia.edu, then you are part of a Listserv mailing list. In many cases, you may unsubscribe yourself from receiving messages for Listserv lists, with the exception of certain automatically-refreshing lists, such as those used by the University to distribute critical information to students, faculty and employees.

If there is not an unsubscribe option at the bottom of the email, then you can unsubscribe from the Listserv portal.

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in. (If you have not registered, follow the steps in the above section.)
Expand the Subscriber Options drop-down on the left-hand navigation pane.
Select Subscriptions.
Open the list you would like to unsubscribe from.
Select the menu button (three horizontal lines) in the upper-righthand corner.
Select Subscribe or Unsubscribe.
Select Unsubscribe.

Listserv defaults to opening the List Archive page after you log in, which is not helpful for most users. CUIT recommends that you update your homepage to open to the List Dashboard, which offers more useful at-a-glance functionality (including an overview of all the mailing lists that you own, any pending moderation requests, and an overview of the main details for each of your lists).

Set your default homepage to the List Dashboard

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
Navigate to the bottom of the left-hand menu and select Preferences.
Under General, change Start Page to List Dashboard.
Click Update in the lower-right hand corner of the box.

Subscribers can be added individually or in bulk.

Add individual subscribers

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
Navigate to Subscriber Reports from the left-hand menu.
Select the list name you wish to modify from the Select List menu and let the page reset. The list will appear below.
Under the Add Subscriber heading, enter information in the Email Address and Name field using the following format with one space between each word: [email protected] Firstname Lastname
If desired, change the Send Email Notification/Do Not Notify the User checkbox.
Click the Add Subscriber button.

Add subscribers in bulk

Create a plain text file (ending in .txt) using a program such as Notepad or TextEdit and save it to the desired location on your computer. The format should be:
[email protected] Firstname Lastname
[email protected] Firstname Lastname
Where [email protected] is the first subscriber's actual email address, followed by at least one space, then their first and last name, and the each additional subscriber's information on a new line.
Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
If you are not already on it, select List Dashboard from the left-hand menu.
Select the list name you wish to modify from the Select List menu and let the page reset. The list will appear below.
Navigate to Subscriber Reports from the left-hand menu.
Click the (Bulk Operations) link next to Add Subscriber.
Select Add the imported addresses to the list option. Select the Choose File button and find the file created in step 1.
Once the file location is listed in the Choose File field, click on the Import button to add your list of subscribers.

Video Guide

How to add multiple list subscribers at one time in LISTSERV®

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
Navigate the the List Dashboard and enter your list name in the Filter text box, then click the Update button on the lower-right.
Select the list from the Select List pulldown menu.
Navigate to the List Configuration dropdown menu, select List Configuration, then Edit with Wizard.
Each of the tabs provides information on the current settings for who is in charge of the list, who can send messages to the list, where replies go, and actions to be taken by moderators once messages are sent. Review each tab, where the current settings are listed along with brief explanations and links to fuller descriptions of each option. You can also change your list configurations here; be sure to select the Update button to save your changes.

Send yourself a list of subscribers

Select LISTSERV Command from the left-hand navigation panel.
Select the mailing list you would like the subscribers of.
Under the Send over Email section at the bottom, select List of [XXXX List] Subscribers. You will quickly receive an email with the information.
If you would like to eliminate the name field, we suggest copy and pasting the information into a spreadsheet, and then saving the file as a .csv file. Then you can delete everything but the column of email addresses and the .csv will ensure that no links are embedded. If needed, you may copy this into a text editor (e.g. Notepad) to create a .txt file.

View or delete subscribers from your dashboard

You can easily view and manage subscribers via your dashboard.

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
Select the List Management drop down in the upper-righthand corner, then List Dashboard.
In the Dashboard find Subscribers (to the right of the list name) and select View.
If you would like to remove any subscribers, check the box to the left of the subscriber's name(s), then scroll to the bottom of the page.
By default the subscribers will not be notified by email. If you want them to be, check the Send email notification of changes option in the lower right, above the Submit button.
When ready click the Delete Selected Subscribers button in the lower left.
If you see an Are you sure... prompt click OK. You will be returned to your dashboard with an updated list of subscribers.

Owner: May add/remove subscribers, and add/remove other owners, editors, and moderators.
Editor: May send messages to the list without requiring approval (even if the list is moderated).
Moderator: May approve messages for distribution on moderated lists.

On active lists, CUIT recommends having at least two owners, two editors, and two moderators as a failsafe in case someone is inaccessible.

Add Users as Editors or Moderators

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
Select the List Management drop down, then List Configuration, and Administrators.
Select the drop down arrow to Select List and choose your mailing list.
Select the List Maintenance tab.
In the Editor (or Moderator) field, type in the email address for the individual(s) you wish to add.
When done, click the Update button in the lower-right.

Add Users as Owners

NOTE: If you are a List Owner and are adding another Owner to take over your mailing list, you must also submit a ticket to the Service Desk to ensure proper transfer of ownership.

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
Select the List Management drop down, then List Configuration, and Administrators.
Select the drop down arrow to Select List and choose your mailing list.
Select the List Maintenance tab.
In the Owner field towards the bottom of the page, type in the email address for the individual(s) you wish to add or remove subscribers from the list.
To stop them from receiving general Listserv administration error messages, add the person's email address to the Quiet Owner field. These messages can fill up an individual's inbox quickly and are usually not needed.
When done, click the Update button in the lower-right.

The default size limit for messages sent to a Lstserv mailing list (including attachments) is 2MB.

The default attachment types permitted are:

Excel Spreadsheets
Word Documents
PowerPoint Presentations
PDF Files
Images

If exceptions for attachments size or types are needed, please submit a ticket with a brief description on the student club/group/organization, business or academic need.

You can change your Listserv view to Expert Mode (from the default Basic Mode) to access the Mail Merge functionality, as well as other options.

To change to Expert Mode, click on your user name in the upper-right corner, select Edit Profile, and then click the drop-down to change from Basic Mode to Expert Mode.

Listserv menu options

Menu Item: List Dashboard
Description: Displays information about all the lists you own, and your pending moderation requests.

Menu Item: List Moderation
Description: Displays your pending moderation requests.

Menu Item: List Configuration
Description: Displays the configuration settings for each list. Make changes here. See List Configuration options for details.

Menu Item: List Customization
Description: Customizes the appearance of the list archives.

Menu Item: List Reports
Description: Creates reports of your lists and their configuration.

Menu Item: Subscriber Reports
Description: Shows subscribers, and allows you to add and delete, and change subscribers' settings. See Subscriber Reports options for details.

Menu Item: List Activity Report
Description: Creates statistical reports of the activity on a list.

Menu Item: Subscriber Management
Description: Allows you to add, delete, or change subscription for individual list members

Menu Item: Web Templates
Description: Allows you to edit templates to customize the Listserv web inteface

Menu Item: Mail Templates
Description: Allows you to modify the email templates for automated confirmation messages, such as acknowledgement messages

Menu Item: Newsletter Templates
Description: Allows you to create and modify HTML newsletter templates

Menu Item: LISTSERV Command
Description: Allows you to issue commands to Listserv for individual lists

Menu Item: LISTSERV Archives
Description: Allows you to view and search Archives

Menu Item: Search Archives
Description: Allows you to Search Archives and provides a view of Lists that you currently own that have Archives

Menu Item: Subscriptions
Description: Displays a list of Lists that you are currently subscribe to and allows you to change your settings for these lists

Menu Item: Preferences
Description: Allows you to change your personal preferences for the Listserv web page

Select List drop-down: Provides a drop-down list of all the lists that you currently own. If you own too many lists for the drop-down, choose from the alphabetical group just below the Select List drop-down.
Keyword: Allows you to search for a specific setting keyword. Most necessary keywords can be found in the tabs below the Keyword field
My Configuration tab: Shows a summary of all the list settings for a list, in Listserv's internal format. To make changes here, Edit with Wizard will help.
Description tab: Allows you to change the List Title and Description of the List. You cannot change the name (email address) of the list.
Administrators tab: Owner: User(s) who receive administrative messages and can designate editors and moderators for the list. Owners are also the only role that can add/remove subscribers for private lists.
- "Quiet" owners do not receive administrative messages, but can to make administrator changes for the list. Every list must have at least one "non-quiet" owner.
- If you remove yourself, another owner will need to re-add you.
- If you have a private list, it is recommended to have several owners so they can share the management of adding and removing subscribers.
Editor: User(s) that are allowed to send emails to the list without moderation.
- The first (top) editor on the list is the "primary" editor, which makes them the default moderator (see below), so they will receive . - It is recommended that editors are also listed as moderators and vice-versa.
Moderator: User(s) that are allowed to approve pending messages to the list.
- In the drop-down, All means that every moderator will be notified for each pending message. Round-robin means that one moderator at a time is notified on a rotating basis. "All" is recommended. Notify: Control notification of new and departing subscribers. Yes: list owner(s) is notified, No: no one is notified, Specify: supply one or more specific addresses to notify. Review: Control who may review the list of subscribers for the list.
Subscriptions:
Subscription: Specify how new subscription requests are handled.
Open: New user is allowed to subscribe to the list. This is not recommended because it does not verify who is subscribing.
Open,Confirm: New user is allowed to subscribe, but will receive a confirmation email and must confirm. No action by the list owner is required.
By_Owner: New user is not allowed to subscribe directly. Instead the subscribe request is forwarded to the list owner for approval. This is the default.
By_Owner,Confirm: New user is not allowed to subscribe directly. Instead the new user will receive a confirmation email and must confirm, and then the subscribe request is forwarded to the list owner for approval.
Closed: New user is not allowed to subscribe. Requests are not forwarded to the list owner.
Subscriptions:
Send–Editor: Defines the categories of users who can send mail to the list without moderation.
Subscriptions:
Send–Special: Defines an email address that is permitted to send to a list without moderation, that is not an Owner, Editor or Moderator of a list.
Subscriptions:
Send–Confirm: When the Confirm option is enabled, the sender is required to confirm the posting. When Listserv receives mail for the list, it sends an email to the sender requesting a confirmation. The confirmation can be accomplished by replying to the email with the word “OK”.
Subscriptions:
Send–Confirm applies to: Allow you to choose which senders will receive a Confirm response when sending a message to a list.
Subscriptions:
Digest: Controls the automatic digestification function, allowing subscribers who do not have the time to read large numbers of messages as they arrive to subscribe to a digestified or indexed version of the list. Digests are larger messages containing all the postings made by list subscribers over a certain period of time. Listserv digests are not edited; what you see is exactly what was posted to the list. The only difference is that you get all the messages for a given day, week or month in a single batch.
Subscriptions:
Topics: Provides a way to run a mailing list where several sub-topics are being discussed in parallel, allowing subscribers to only receive messages related to their topics of interest.
Subscriptions:
Default–Options: Defines initial personal options for new subscribers.
Security:
Confidential: Specify whether the list should be confidential. If No, the list will appear in the list of lists and on the web archive index. If Service, it will only appear on the web archive index. If Yes, it is not publicized at all.
Security:
Local: Not applicable
Security:
Service: Not applicable
Security:
Validate: Indicates what level of validation is performed for Listserv commands emailed to the list that apply to individual lists.
Archives and Logs: Please contact the CUIT Service Desk before modifying these settings.
Attachments: Please contact the CUIT Service Desk before modifying these settings.
Error Handling: Please contact the CUIT Service Desk before modifying these settings.
Distribution:
Reply-To: Defines a default for the "Reply-To" in all messages from the list allowing recipients to reply to an email address other than the List. (Some replies may go to the list address anyway.)
Distribution:
Specify Addresses: Specifies the Reply-To address
Distribution:
Existing Reply-To: Specifies whether to overwrite any existing Reply-To that may exist in a message sent to the List
: Respect: The original "Reply-To" tag on the posting, if any, is kept. If no valid "Reply-To" tag exists in the posting, the value defined in the first parameter of this keyword is used
: Ignore: The original "Reply-To" tag on the posting, if any, is ignored and discarded, and the value defined in the first parameter of this keyword is used instead. If you code "Reply-To= None,Ignore", then a "Reply-To" tag will never be sent by Listserv.
Distribution:
Sub-List: Defines list of sub-lists that you would like to add to the List. This allows you to use one list as a Parent list, with Child lists that are maintained separately. Sub-lists should entered as the List name only, not the full address (ie. LISTNAME rather than [email protected])
Example: [email protected] (Parent List) MORNGINSIDE-STUDENTS (Sub-list) CUIMC-STUDENTS (Sub-list)
Distribution:
Subject-Tag: Defines a word, or words, that you would like prepended to the subject of all messages sent to the list.

Select List drop-down: Select the list for which you wish to modify memberships
Add Subscriber: Enter individual email addresses to add to the list
Bulk Operations (link): Allows you to Bulk Add or Remove members for the current list via a text file (.txt).
Text file should be created as a list of addresses only.
Example:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Send Email Notification (checkbox): Placing a check mark in this box will send a notification to the subscribers upon being added to the list
List of Members: Shows up to 9999 members of the list per page.
Clicking on an individual email address permits changing of settings for that specific recipient such as Name, Email address, Subscription Type, Mail Header Style, Acknowledgement settings and various other settings
Lines per Page: Allows you to increase or lower the number of subscribers listed on the pages (maximum is 9,999)

FAQ

Yes, though be aware that unsubscribing will not work for dynamic, automatically-refreshed lists such as those often used by Human Resources (users would be added back the next day automatically).

Navigate to https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe and use the link in the upper right to log in.
Select Mail Templates from the left-hand navigation pane.
Select the list you would like to add the unsubscribe option to.
Under Template Categories, select Top and Bottom Banners. Click Select.
Select BOTTOM_BANNER. Copy the exact content, including the hyphens, from Step 6 below and paste it into the Content box. Do not change anything.


--  If you would like to unsubscribe from this list, simply send an email to &LISTNAME-UNSUBSCRIBE-REQUEST@&MYHOST. No subject or message is necessary in the email. --

Select Update in the lower-righthand corner. List owners will receive a notification when users choose to unsubscribe, however their removal is automatic.
Return to Mail Templates and follow steps 1-6 for BOTTOM_BANNER_HTML. This will ensure the footer is added to both email formats.

Navigate to List Configuration in the left-hand navigation pane.
Select the list you wish to add the tag to from the drop-down at the top.
Select the Distribution tab (button) in the middle of the page.
In the Subject-Tag field, enter a single-word tag (you can use a hyphen for two words) that you would like to have added to the subject line of emails sent to this mailing list and select Update at the bottom-right of the page to save.

For example, if you were to enter CUIT-NEWS in the Subject-Tag field, an email sent to this mailing list might have the subject [CUIT-NEWS] Check out the September Newsletter.

Yes. You can customize the following URL by replacing LISTNAME with the name of your mailing list (as found in the Select List drop-down menu in List Configuration) and then provide the link as needed. Anyone that clicks on the link will be prompted to provide their name, email address, and subscription type.

https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=LISTNAME&A=1

For example, if your list is called CUIT-NEWS, then your URL would be https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=CUIT-NEWS&A=1.

Listserv Mailing Lists

Comparison of Listserv and Mailman roles

Dynamic Synced Lists

Listserv Dynamic Lists

Using Listserv web interface

Subscribe to a Listserv

Add multiple list subscribers

Change your Listserv subscription email address

Create a welcome and a farewell messages

Change or add list owners in Listserv

First time users to register in Listserv and setup a password?

Unsubscribe myself from a mailing list?

Set my default homepage to the List Dashboard?

Set your default homepage to the List Dashboard

Add subscribers?

Add individual subscribers

Add subscribers in bulk

Review my list settings?

View or remove subscribers?

Send yourself a list of subscribers

View or delete subscribers from your dashboard

Add users as editors, moderators or owners?

Add Users as Editors or Moderators

Add Users as Owners

See what attachments I can send?

Get even more Listserv options?

Left-hand menu details

List Configuration options

Subscriber Reports options

Can I add an "Unsubscribe Me" button to the bottom of emails sent to my list?

Can I add a default tag to the subject line of all emails sent to my mailing list to allow subscribers to search and sort more easily?

Can I create a link to send to people or put on my website so they can subscribe themselves to my mailing list?

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