I thought graduate students might be interested in this-- Steve --- -------------( Forwarded letter follows )----------------------- --- Received: from VM.ECS.RPI.EDU by UTXVM.BITNET (Mailer R2.08 PTF008) with BSMTP id 9335; Tue, 15 Sep 92 15:35:37 CST Received: by RPIECS (Mailer R2.08) id 4025; Tue, 15 Sep 92 16:34:37 EDT Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 16:34 EDT To: "Steve Carr" <Carr@UTXVM> From: SUPPORT@RPIECS (Comserve Support Staff) Reply-To: SUPPORT@RPIECS (Comserve Support Staff) Subject: A message from Glenn Getz ... Dear Subscriber: Welcome to COMGRADS, the newest Comserve hotline designed specifically for students in communication studies. The general purpose of COMGRADS is to provide an open forum for members to discuss important student issues, get feedback on ideas, and network with other students across the world. Unlike other Comserve hotlines which revolve around topic areas, COMGRADS serves the specific needs of students on the network, whatever those needs might be. The COMGRADS Steering Committee developed a purpose statement during several recent electronic conferences that may better inform you of the nature of this hotline: "COMGRADS is an electronic forum for the open exchange of ideas of interest to graduate and undergraduate students in communication studies. The resources available to COMGRADS participants include information on various graduate programs and departments, news of conferences and other opportunities for student contribution, discussions on theoretical, empirical, critical, and methodological topics, and interaction with selected faculty regarding student issues." The committee expressed concerns that COMGRADS not duplicate the services of other hotlines. This directs us to be creative in organizing projects through the hotline. Incidentally, one of the advantages of COMGRADS is that it provides a more risk-free forum for research ideas than other hotlines. We developed a few ideas for COMGRADS projects during our discussions: 1. We will create an electronic "yellow pages" with students names and computer addresses organized according to institution so that students looking for graduate programs or interviewing for jobs can interact with other students in specific programs. 2. We will organize national and international discussions of significant student issues. 3. We will invite important scholars and editors to take part in an electronic panel discussion in which students inquire about publishing, teaching, career decisions, whatever. Obviously there are other possibilities--including everyday inquiries about this or that citation, research idea, teaching tidbit, or conference/publication invitation. Please make your suggestions and concerns known on the hotline or e-mail your ideas to a member of the steering committee. Until we really get moving, discussions on COMGRADS will not be edited. However, special panel discussions with invited guests (journal editors, scholars, students) may be edited for practical reasons (so questions can be compiled efficiently without redundancies). Please tell other students about COMGRADS. The more students we involve in this project the more successfuul it will become. Currently we are sending letters to student members of the Speech Communication Assoc. --an organization which provides some funding for the hotline--but if you have other advertising ideas please let us know. And again, welcome to COMGRADS. I hope you can find something useful in the resources this hotline provides. Sincerely Glenn Getz, Chairperson COMGRADS Steering Committee: Glenn Getz, University of Iowa, <ASTGCGWY@UIAMVS> Marshall Rosenstein, University of Connecticut, <MARSHALL@UCONNVM> Robert Terrill, University of Arkansas, <RTERRILL@UAFSYSB> Steve Peake, University of North Carolina, <PEAKE@UNCA> Melanie Barnes, University of Iowa, <BLAMKBWY@UIAMVS>. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Update: August 31, 1992 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Welcome to Comgrads! The new school year is just beginning and we have at least two projects in the works for the student hotline. The first project, collecting student names and e-mail addresses for personal and professional networking purposes, requires some simple actions on your part. Comserve already has in place a sub-service, called the WhitePages, which will make this task almost effortless. The WhitePages is an electronic index of names, interests, institutions, and e-mail addresses for individuals in the communication field. It allows one to record one's own information and request information about others. For example, if I were interested in contacting someone at Purdue University through the network I would send a Search command to Comserve specifying that I was interested in receiving a list of all individuals who have enrolled in the WhitePages and who have included the text "Purdue" somewhere in their entry. I could do the same with student members in the directory, or colleagues interested in Mass Communication Theory. The WhitePages will allow students greater contact with each other, and with faculty, and provide networking resources that could prove invaluable. To participate in this project, you should first request the WhitePages instructional file. Send an e-mail message to Comserve@Rpiecs (Bitnet) or [log in to unmask] (Internet) that contains only the text: Help Topics WhitePages This text should be placed in the body of the e-mail on a line by itself. Don't include any other text or signatures, just the command as you see it above. When Comserve receives this message, it will send you a file that provides detailed information about how to use the WhitePages to build an entry for your self or to search for others. Second, send your own WhitePages entry for inclusion. Send a message to Comserve with the word NEWENTRY at the top of the message. It should look something like mine: NEWENTRY Glenn Getz Rhetorical Theory Student Issues Mass Communication Theory Rhetorical Criticism Work Address: Department of Rhetoric University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242 Work Phone: 319-335-0178 You should NOT leave any blank lines between items in the new entry, and your message should not contain any additional notes or inquiries -- just NEWENTRY followed by your information. Please be sure to include Student Issues as one of the items, so other students can contact you. Now try searching the WhitePages. Simply send a Search command to Comserve and you will receive a file from the directory. For example, you might send the command: Search student to receive the names and addresses of any students in the WhitePages. The second project, an electronic panel discussion on the topic of research and publishing, is underway. George Gerbner, Robert Ivie, Tom Benson, and Bill Eadie are just a few of the seven or so panelists I have invited to partipate in this our first online discussion. You will have the opportunity, in early February, to question these panelists on the subject of publishing. I'm sure it will be a successful and useful interaction for us all. I hope you will encourage student friends and colleagues to join our hotline before that event. If it goes well, future panel topics may cover other topics, such as quality teaching. Let me know if you have any questions about activities of Comgrads! At this point, I am the only one doing any planning. If you would like to contribute some of your time to future projects, please let me know. Thanks! Sincerely, Glenn C. Getz COMGRADS Chairperson University of Iowa