Student-initiated listservices are increasingly becoming standard fare in counselor-preparation programs for many of the same reasons that CESNET has become a popular feature for counselor educators. A student-initiated listservice is a particularly good way to promote informational, research, and social connections among counselors-in-training who may be stressed by time pressures, financial pressures, and/or social isolation. Participation in a student-initiated listservice provides counseling students with a safe, easy way to become familiar with the use of technology in their profession (Harman, 1999). Technological competency opens the door to a world of communication and information resources that are becoming increasingly more essential for counselors in the twenty-first century (Sabella, 2000).

When students initiate, develop, promote, and maintain their own listservice, they learn new and important skills while simultaneously providing a valuable service for themselves and their peers. While the purpose of a student-initiated listservice is to provide a forum for counseling students, the members of some student listservices choose to extend membership to counselor educators and staff, thus providing service to an even wider audience. Faculty of counselor preparation programs may in turn facilitate a student-initiated listservice by directly encouraging their students to do so, citing the many benefits available.
 

Basic Setup Procedures

A listservice for counseling students may be easily initiated by graduate students in a university counselor-training program. Basic set-up procedures for a listservice typically involve investigating what services are in place through the university facility in which the counseling program is a part, and then making decisions accordingly. Students can take the first step by contacting their university computer services center and inquiring about the procedures for beginning a listservice within the university-based internet facilities. Most universities have listservice capabilities enabling students to simply utilize the existing system by providing all necessary information for the set-up of the listservice.

Set-up procedures are typically made from a web-based site. When students go on-line to set up the listservice, they should be prepared to answer questions and make procedural decisions that often including supplying the following information:
 

The name of a faculty member who is willing to serve asa sponsor (when the listservice is initiated and maintained by students, the named faculty member should have no associated responsibilities)

The name of a student who is willing to serve as the listservice moderator

A name for the listservice

Specifics regarding the role of the moderator (i.e., will all messages be pre-approved by the moderator, or will messages post directly on the listservice?)

The intended audience (will listservice be open to students only? Can persons not affiliated with the university subscribe, too?)

Note that these decisions are not inflexible, but can change as the needs of the listservice membership change (subsequent web sessions can be scheduled to program in changes for the listservice).
 

Promoting the Listservice

Once the listservice is set up, the task of promotion will begin and, not surprisingly, continue indefinitely. Numerous strategies are utilized by students to promote their listservice, some of which include:
 

• Informing new students during the counseling department’s Orientation about the listservice and encouraging them to subscribe.
• Providing written instructions that detail how to join the listservice, and posting these bulletins in clearly accessible places such as department bulletin boards and in Student Handbooks.
• Offering a "walk-through" for new students to assist them in acquiring a university email account
• Soliciting faculty to distribute information about the listservice in their classes or to schedule the listservice student moderator to speak in their classes about the listservice.
• Student organizations, such as Chi Sigma Iota, may take an active role in promoting and maintaining the List.

Faculty may wish to include a discussion of the student-initiated listservice in their ethics and professional orientation classes. Discussions regarding listservices can provide food for thought, leading to timely class topics such as the ethical use of listservices and the web in counseling and supervision. Students and faculty may wish to review the technology-related listservice for counselors via the web-site, http://ccp.colstate.edu/acestin; and the American Counseling Association’s Ethical Standards for Internet On-line Counseling via the web-site, http://www.counseling.org/gc/cybertx.htm.

When a person joins the listservice, the moderator may choose to send the new subscriber a Welcome Notice (this can be stored on disk or on email). Although a similar notice may be sent automatically from the university internet provider, the Welcome Notice can be tailored to the student-initiated counseling listservice and may include, for example, the ethics of confidentiality on the web, easy-to-understand instructions on how to subscribe and un-subscribe, instructions regarding posting a message, and a list of etiquette rules for the listservice (i.e., DO NOT PRINT IN ALL CAPS).

Once set up, a listservice may be an enormously beneficial and enjoyable way of increasing communication between busy professionals in training. Sharing ideas about research interests, finding a used copy of a textbook, or buying a block of basketball tickets are all common messages posted by students on a counseling student-initiated Listservice. The following are some examples of messages posted on student-initiated listservices:
 

"I am doing a thesis project on interracial identity.I am looking for interracial couples who are interested in participating in my research. All they would have to do is complete a questionnaire, which would be anonymous. Please email me back if you can help out."

"Hey all! I just wanted to let everyone know that I got the internship I wanted in Hawaii!! Can you believe it, after all my stress about it. Thanks to all who had to put up with me and all who helped in my pursuit."

 

Trouble-Shooting

Few problems arise for listservices and/or their moderators, and those that do arise are usually easily resolved. For example, one irritation for listservice subscribers - inappropriate postings - can be readily soothed when promptly addressed by the moderator. For example, when several subscribers complained about numerous postings on a student-initiated counseling listservice regarding a certain after-the-football-game party, the moderator responded by posting a message that read, in part, "This is a good time for us to consider the purpose of this List. What do subscribers of this List feel about having social as well as counseling-related postings?" Another common problem for novice Listservice subscribers is the posting of frequent personal messages as new subscribers learn the difference between hitting the "single reply" key versus the "reply to all" key. Periodic reminders by the moderator regarding simple technical assistance such as this, as well as the purpose of the Listservice, generally take care of these sorts of situations.
 

Technical Maintenance of a Listservice

The last component of a listservice is technical upkeep, a fairly minimal but important task for the moderator. Most upkeep consists of keeping current with the frequent changes in email addresses of subscribers, and tracking down subscribers who terminate an email account but neglect to unsubscribe to the listservice. Depending on how the server is configured, when subscribers forget or neglect to unsubscribe, the moderator is subject to receiving multiple "error" messages (i.e., unable to deliver) until the problem is resolved. Even the most patient of moderators has been known to remove a tardy subscriber address from a listservice for the sake of a clean email screen.

In summary, a student-initiated listservice is a valuable way for counseling students to learn first-hand the utility and benefits of internet communication in their chosen profession.
 

References

Harman, K. E.(1999, Oct). Becoming a Cyber Counselor. http://www.classroom.com [on-line].

Sabella, R.A. (2000). SchoolCounselor.Com. American School Counselor Association Publications: Herndon, VA.
 

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Appendix

SAMPLE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR STUDENT-INITIATED LISTSERVICE

All MED, EDS, and PHD students are invited to subscribe to a Listservice that has been established specially for use by the University’s Counselor Education students. Listservices are e-mail networks established for and by people with specific interests, in this case, the Counselor Education program. The Counselor Education Listservice is used to facilitate the exchange of announcements, ideas, job opportunities, legislative action, professional news, research concerns, and many related issues.

To Join the Listservice, send mail to:

listserv@lists.university.edu

with the following command in the text (not the subject) of your message:

Subscribe COUNSELOR-ED-LIST (your name)

The Listservice facility will ask you to confirm your subscription with a simple e-mail response; you will then receive brief directions about using the service. Send questions, comments, or requests for assistance to the moderator, ConnieCounselor@university.com.
  

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About the Author

Tovah Sands is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at California State University - Northridge. Correspondence can be directed to the author at tovah.sands@csun.edu

© 2000 Department of Counseling and Educational Leadership - Columbus State University