Each year, more than 6,000 undergraduates entrust their academic records to the office of one man, but most have no idea who he is.

And that’s exactly the way it should be, says Barry S. Kane, the new registrar of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

“Our job is to fit into the background,” he says. “Students shouldn’t have to think about the registrar too much. After all, how many students can remember the name of their registrar after they graduate? But I bet they can remember the names of the professors who most influenced their lives.”

But Kane’s unassuming office serves as an indispensable gear in Harvard’s undergraduate machine, managing course enrollment, grades, academic archives, course catalogs, handbooks and billing. So when the machinery breaks down, students take notice.

Kane learned this lesson at Yale, where he recently completed six years as registrar. During that time, he oversaw Yale’s rocky transition to a new database for student records. Kane took the brunt of the criticism fired at his office for glitches in the system that led to such debacles as lost transcripts and “disappearing” students.

Kane says those experiences taught him much about the difficulties of updating the information systems of a major college and that he looks forward to applying this knowledge to his new job at Harvard, where he will complete the College’s conversion to a new student records database. The new system will enable the registrar’s office to develop software to streamline exam scheduling, classroom assignments and grade and transcript processing.

Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71, who had the final say in Kane’s appointment, has said that he wants the Harvard Educational Resource System (HERS2) in place by the end of the year. He requested that Kane and his colleagues draw up a plan for the implementation of the custom-made database.

“There were a few denials of service when Barry was at Yale, implementing the Banner system,” Gross says. “We discussed this with him, and felt that he had learned a great deal from that experience.”

Kane says he expects things to run more smoothly at Harvard, where the registrar’s office boasts a considerably larger staff and its own technical support personnel.

The promise of these resources was the prime reason for his eventual decision to come to Cambridge, according to Kane, who says that leaving Yale was one of the most difficult choices of his life.

Moreover, Kane says he expects an easier time at Harvard because he will report directly to Gross, the official responsible for oversight of the students he represents—a much simpler line of authority than he encountered at Yale.

Against this auspicious backdrop, Kane says he and his new staff are excited to have the database in place so they can work on simplifying the bureaucratic necessities of student life.

‘Kafka-esque nightmare’

Kane was plucked from Yale’s registrar office this summer following a nationwide search to replace Harvard’s outgoing Registrar Arlene F. Becella. He has also been registrar at Drew University and Colgate College.

Under Kane’s leadership, Yale’s registrar office underwent many technological upgrades.