THE NEWS IN BRIEF: Students To Register For Classes Online Next Fall, Abroad Courses Will Debut on Student Transcripts

As part of the College’s push to conduct more administrative tasks online, undergraduates next fall will begin registering their arrival on campus via computer—and will be spared the customary trek to Sever Hall to sign in.

The plan was presented to the Faculty Council—the 18-member governing board of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)—at a Council meeting yesterday.

Students will still hand in study cards in person, but they will be required to submit their registration, or “I am Here,” cards online from a computer on the Harvard network rather than in person, according to FAS Registrar Barry Kane.

And soon, students may be spared even more paperwork, as the registrar considers making course registration and add/drop forms electronic as well.

“At this point we are seriously looking at deploying an on-line course enrollment application,” Kane wrote in an e-mail.

Kane told The Crimson in October that one challenge to an online course registration system is ensuring that students receive enough in-person advising even after advisers are no longer required to sign study cards.

The Council also approved a motion to list courses that students take while studying at other institutions on the students’ official Harvard transcripts.

“Some students had requested that those courses be listed on their Harvard transcript even though they would have some other transcript from the college they attended overseas or elsewhere in the United States.” said Council member and Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith L. Ryan.

However, grades from courses taken out of residence will still not be factored into students’ grade point averages.

Further recommendations relating to study abroad will be available tomorrow, when the Committee on Education Abroad—one of six curricular review committees—releases its report.