Katherine McGaffigan—the key witness whose testimony in a Boston federal court last month led to the conviction last Friday of a neo-Nazi and his white supremacist girlfriend for conspiracy to bomb a Jewish or black landmark—is not actually a Harvard undergraduate despite her claims to the contrary, the University confirmed last night.

“Kathy McGaffigan is an ALB degree candidate (Bachelor of Liberal Arts) in the Harvard Extension School, which is the school of continuing education, and is also registered as a Special Student in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,” according to an e-mail sent last night by Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68.

McGaffigan testified under oath that she is a Harvard “senior”—a claim that clashed with information provided this past week by officials from 20 Garden St. to the Barker Center.

“Our records don’t show that she’s been regularly enrolled,” said Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman ’67.

The registrar’s office said McGaffigan’s affiliation with Harvard was not as a full-time undergraduate, but as a “special student.” Special students take individual classes that do not count toward a Faculty of Arts and Sciences degree.

“One of the requirements for [special student status] usually is an undergraduate degree,” said a staffer in the registrar’s office. The information of whether or not McGaffigan had received a degree from another university was unavailable, the staffer said.

As a special student this past spring, McGaffigan enrolled in Bernbaum Professor of Literature Leo Damrosch’s popular class, English 185, “Wit and Humor.”

Megan L. McDaniel, McGaffigan’s section leader for the class, said she had “no idea” that McGaffigan was preparing to be a witness in the conspiracy case while enrolled in the class or that she had been involved in white supremacist groups.

“I’m really, really shocked,” McDaniel said. “It’s a humor class, it’s not the place you’d expect to find something like that.”

During her one confirmed semester of study at Harvard in the spring, McGaffigan did not appear to be very involved in campus life.

“She was traveling a lot,” McDaniel said. “She went to England around the time of Spring Break. It was an excuse she gave me to get out of class one time.”

Five other students in McGaffigan’s “Wit and Humor” section said they did not know McGaffigan, two of whom said they could not put her name with a face from the class.

“I don’t recall her having any friends in the class,” McDaniel said.

Harvard officials could also not confirm a House affiliation for McGaffigan. All College undergraduates are assigned to a residential House in the spring of their first year and must retain a House affiliation for the rest of their time studying at the College.

McGaffigan told The Crimson last week that she was a member of Dudley House, the one nonresidential House with which some off-campus students affiliate.