Sherry LaCoursiere has never met Alan Davidson, but the two have a well established working relationship. Since the beginning of October, they have been exchanging e-mail about the opportunities that a new email list for graduate students launched last month might offer.

"It has been created to give graduate students and faculty an opportunity to discuss issues that are of concern to them, in a forum other than meetings," says LaCoursiere, who with Davidson and Julie Cyr, former president of the Graduate Student Senate, are co-owners of the list, known as GRDISU-L. "It will also give graduate students another way to be connected to the life of the University, especially those students who might not otherwise be active on campus."

Only a few weeks old, GRDISU-L already has 62 subscribers.

"This is a good initial response," says LaCoursiere, a doctoral student in nursing.

"There has been a lot of talk in the forum on different ways to promote the list," she says. LaCoursiere says some of the ideas are helpful, but she hopes the forum will deal with other issues relevant to graduate education at UConn. "We are trying to stimulate other types of conversations with our members," she says.

One of the main purposes of GRDISU-L is to give people an opportunity to see other points of view, LaCoursiere adds, "so you are able to achieve a broader perspective.

"When you first start a list," she says, "a lot of people are somewhat reserved electronically and they want to see what kind of discussion is going back and forth to see if they feel comfortable before jumping in."

There are guidelines, however. "This is not the place to communicate horror stories about advisors, professors or anyone else," says Davidson, who plans to complete a Ph.D. in sociology in January.

There are two ways to subscribe to GRDISU-L. You can use a form on the web, or send e-mail to: listserv@uconnvm. uconn.edu with the message: SUB GRDISU-L John/Jane Doe (substitute your own name).

You will receive an automatic message from LISTSERV® requesting confirmation of your subscription. Reply "OK," and you will then receive a message confirming your subscription to GRDISU-L.

Luis Mocete