Antique No More: Registrar Revamps Technology

Twenty Garden St. is about to lose an old friend: its nearly two-decade-old computer system.

According to officials in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the Registrar's Office is in the midst of a massive technology project that will revamp the entire FAS record-keeping process.

When the initiative--managed by independent computer consulting and software production company Nevo Technologies--is fully implemented, departments, Houses and administrative offices will make changes to course listings via Web browsers; students will gain access to their course schedules and grades on-line; and examination scheduling and calendar planning will be fully computerized.

It's a utopian vision: no more mad dashes past the Sheraton Commander to reach the Registrar's Office before the 5 p.m. deadline on study card day, no more inefficient paperwork for departmental administrators and the Registrar's Office.

Technology--FAS hopes--will save the day.

No Day But Today

The Registrar's Office has had a tough time keeping step with the march of technology recently.

The current Harvard Educational Records System (HERS) consumes time and energy unnecessarily in the face of the computer age, FAS officials say. At present, departments submit course catalog entries on paper, then officials in the Registrar's Office retype the data.

This routine inherently engenders mistakes, even though former Registrar and current Associate Dean of the College Georgene B. Herschbach notes that "there is no tolerance for error in the Registrar's Office."

Until the early nineties, the Registrar's entire staff entered study card information by hand into its computer system. The laborious process was replaced by computer-read bubble forms, according to Herschbach. HERS then spent hours--into the early morning--slowly churning out data reports.

While the Registrar has migrated its information onto faster Unix servers over the past two decades, accessing stored data still requires highly-specialized knowledge.

HERS "required expert users with at least a year of training," says Kenneth S. Ledeen '67, chief executive officer of Nevo.

The system "isn't broken, but clearly it's dated," Herschbach says.

HERS stores information relatively efficiently, but it "fails to serve analytical needs," Ledeen says.

One cannot make basic queries to the system--requesting, for example, the number of undergraduates cross-listed in courses at the Kennedy School of Government--and receive an immediate answer.

"HERS was state of the art--in the late seventies," Ledeen says.

And new FAS Registrar Arlene Becella notes that a simple alteration to records--such as a concentration's name change--took an entire summer to implement.

"We had these great workhorses, so we could enroll 35,000 students in three days," Becella says, "but we couldn't get information out of it that would help the Dean's office make decisions because the information was embedded in processes, in hard coding."

And its structure made it "impossible to provide access to more than few users--the cognoscenti," Ledeen says.

Those expert users--well-versed in the complicated HERS coding--are currently essential for the Registrar's Office to function.

"If the wrong four people all got sick on the same day, we'd be in serious jeopardy," says Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68. "[The new system, HERS-2,] will put the power into the hands of many."

Indeed, Ledeen says Nevo is creating a system which is "much more open, but still very secure."

Using "the most advanced software technology out there," HERS-2 will use a "three-tiered architecture," designed to be "flexible, powerful and easily expandable," Ledeen says.

Rather than the traditional client-server model of system architecture, the

Participating in formal training in April, thebeta testers will work on refining course catalogentries in HERS-2 for the 1998-99 CourseCatalog.

Eventually, the Registrar's Office will allowdepartmental administrators to enter all courseinformation directly on the Web.

The hope is that 75 to 80 percent of theentries for this time around will be handled bythe Registrar's Office, and a quarter will behandled by the departments," Cook says. "Withintwo or three years, those percentages willhopefully be reversed."

Cook also notes that departments who wish notto participate in the HERS-2 Web-based system cancontinue with the old paper-shuffling method,however "inherently inefficient" that may be.

Most of the departmental representatives whohave attended the demonstrations have respondedpositively, citing the greater efficiency, lesspaperwork and fewer errors that come with directaccess.

"I welcome new challenges," says Frances Y.Feldman, administrator of the Germanic Languagesand Literatures department, who sees there-technology as a way to "increase [her own]skill set."

"As long as there's adequate training...as longas there's help at the other end of the phoneline, I'm happy," she says.

Others laud the move to direct access.

"There were mistakes in last year's catalogthat could have been prevented," says Teresa T.Wu, administrator in the Department of Classics."We're ready for the change."

But with the system in testing now, andtraining to begin in April, the change may cometoo quickly.

With a month between the end of HERS-2 trainingand Commencement--the traditional due date fordepartmental catalog entries--some worry thatthere will not be sufficient time to complete theCatalog.

And a handful of administrators--includingthose in Anthropology and Celtic Language andLiterature--note that their offices are notequipped with the technology to handle HERS-2.

"I keep asking for money to update my reallyold computer system," says Margo M. Granfors,administrative assistant in the Celtic Languageand Literature department who works on a 486IBM-clone that runs Windows 3.1 on eight megabytesof RAM.

Ledeen recommends machines with 32 megabytes ofmemory for those departments purchasing newcomputers.

"I'm trying to upgrade...it's not by choice[that I haven't]," Granfors says. Her currentcomputer will not allow her to use HERS-2.

But if given a suitable computer, Granfors saysshe is confident that Barker Center technicalsupport--namely Sharon L. Copperwheat--would beable to provide assistance in the face of computerglitches.

As an administrator working in the BarkerCenter, Feldman says she finds the technicalsupport to be "extraordinarily helpful andprompt," but realizes that "other departmentsdon't have that."

Ensconced in Hilles Library, Susan J. Borges,administrator for the committee on degrees insocial studies, says Cook has made an otherwise"scary process" wonderful.

"It all goes back to Joe Cook. Before, thecatalog process felt impersonal and out of mycontrol completely," Borges says, noting that thefeeling of isolation naturally worsens as the Webreplaces human interaction.

But, she says, this move to further reliance onthe Web does not bother her.

"I'm not nervous because Joe is attached tothis project," she says.

Borges says she looks forward to theopportunity to participate in a more efficientsystem. "This is all wonderful and also veryscary...now the buck is going to stop here," shesays.

"Moving responsibility down the 'chain ofcommand' to the level of direct knowledge is nevera bad move," says Carolyn C. MacLeod,administrative and financial officer for theDepartment of Afro-American Studies. "This type oftechnological upgrade is long overdue at Harvard."

Right Here, Right Now

While some administrators will be using HERS-2by May, students may also enjoy the fruits of FAStechnology projects by the end of the academicyear.

According to David M. Sobel, manager of userservices for Harvard Arts and Sciences ComputerServices (HASCS), students in FAS will usespecially-assigned PINs to gain read-only secureaccess to their most recent grades and courseselections.

Titled "Registrar Online: Access to StudentInformation Services," the project was firstreported this summer by The Crimson, but Sobelsays Oracle database installation caused delaysfor HASCS.

Aiming for a late-spring release, Sobel saysHASCS "hopes to provide student with grades priorto [their] receiving a printed version."

HERS-2, according to Becella, will ultimatelyprovide many of the same services, so theRegistrar Online will offer grades and courseschedules to students while Nevo finishes the morecomprehensive system.

In addition to HERS-2 and the Registrar Online,FAS has developed ASPerIN, a Web-based databasefor personnel appointments and staff information,and the Purchasing Card--a corporate MasterCardwhich will eliminate the bulk of purchase orders.

Herschbach said she also hopes the College willdevelop an FAS Classroom Database to cope withspace conflicts.

"This is not just a software project," Lewissays. "This is an opportunity to think about howwe collect and distribute information. This is avery significant moment.

Participating in formal training in April, thebeta testers will work on refining course catalogentries in HERS-2 for the 1998-99 CourseCatalog.

Eventually, the Registrar's Office will allowdepartmental administrators to enter all courseinformation directly on the Web.

The hope is that 75 to 80 percent of theentries for this time around will be handled bythe Registrar's Office, and a quarter will behandled by the departments," Cook says. "Withintwo or three years, those percentages willhopefully be reversed."

Cook also notes that departments who wish notto participate in the HERS-2 Web-based system cancontinue with the old paper-shuffling method,however "inherently inefficient" that may be.

Most of the departmental representatives whohave attended the demonstrations have respondedpositively, citing the greater efficiency, lesspaperwork and fewer errors that come with directaccess.

"I welcome new challenges," says Frances Y.Feldman, administrator of the Germanic Languagesand Literatures department, who sees there-technology as a way to "increase [her own]skill set."

"As long as there's adequate training...as longas there's help at the other end of the phoneline, I'm happy," she says.

Others laud the move to direct access.

"There were mistakes in last year's catalogthat could have been prevented," says Teresa T.Wu, administrator in the Department of Classics."We're ready for the change."

But with the system in testing now, andtraining to begin in April, the change may cometoo quickly.

With a month between the end of HERS-2 trainingand Commencement--the traditional due date fordepartmental catalog entries--some worry thatthere will not be sufficient time to complete theCatalog.

And a handful of administrators--includingthose in Anthropology and Celtic Language andLiterature--note that their offices are notequipped with the technology to handle HERS-2.

"I keep asking for money to update my reallyold computer system," says Margo M. Granfors,administrative assistant in the Celtic Languageand Literature department who works on a 486IBM-clone that runs Windows 3.1 on eight megabytesof RAM.

Ledeen recommends machines with 32 megabytes ofmemory for those departments purchasing newcomputers.

"I'm trying to upgrade...it's not by choice[that I haven't]," Granfors says. Her currentcomputer will not allow her to use HERS-2.

But if given a suitable computer, Granfors saysshe is confident that Barker Center technicalsupport--namely Sharon L. Copperwheat--would beable to provide assistance in the face of computerglitches.

As an administrator working in the BarkerCenter, Feldman says she finds the technicalsupport to be "extraordinarily helpful andprompt," but realizes that "other departmentsdon't have that."

Ensconced in Hilles Library, Susan J. Borges,administrator for the committee on degrees insocial studies, says Cook has made an otherwise"scary process" wonderful.

"It all goes back to Joe Cook. Before, thecatalog process felt impersonal and out of mycontrol completely," Borges says, noting that thefeeling of isolation naturally worsens as the Webreplaces human interaction.

But, she says, this move to further reliance onthe Web does not bother her.

"I'm not nervous because Joe is attached tothis project," she says.

Borges says she looks forward to theopportunity to participate in a more efficientsystem. "This is all wonderful and also veryscary...now the buck is going to stop here," shesays.

"Moving responsibility down the 'chain ofcommand' to the level of direct knowledge is nevera bad move," says Carolyn C. MacLeod,administrative and financial officer for theDepartment of Afro-American Studies. "This type oftechnological upgrade is long overdue at Harvard."

Right Here, Right Now

While some administrators will be using HERS-2by May, students may also enjoy the fruits of FAStechnology projects by the end of the academicyear.

According to David M. Sobel, manager of userservices for Harvard Arts and Sciences ComputerServices (HASCS), students in FAS will usespecially-assigned PINs to gain read-only secureaccess to their most recent grades and courseselections.

Titled "Registrar Online: Access to StudentInformation Services," the project was firstreported this summer by The Crimson, but Sobelsays Oracle database installation caused delaysfor HASCS.

Aiming for a late-spring release, Sobel saysHASCS "hopes to provide student with grades priorto [their] receiving a printed version."

HERS-2, according to Becella, will ultimatelyprovide many of the same services, so theRegistrar Online will offer grades and courseschedules to students while Nevo finishes the morecomprehensive system.

In addition to HERS-2 and the Registrar Online,FAS has developed ASPerIN, a Web-based databasefor personnel appointments and staff information,and the Purchasing Card--a corporate MasterCardwhich will eliminate the bulk of purchase orders.

Herschbach said she also hopes the College willdevelop an FAS Classroom Database to cope withspace conflicts.

"This is not just a software project," Lewissays. "This is an opportunity to think about howwe collect and distribute information. This is avery significant moment.