One of Harvard College’s biannual traditions will go the way of the slide rule this fall, as registration day—the ritual gathering of every College student in Harvard Yard to sign cards acclaiming their presence on campus—migrates to cyberspace.

While the change is expected to save the Registrar’s office over $50,000, according to Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Registrar Barry S. Kane, the bureaucratic streamlining of online registration is not without drawbacks: technologically-savvy students can now register without actually leaving home, scoring an extra weekend of summer.

And according to Matthew J. Glazer ’06, Undergraduate Council (UC) President, online registration could make it easier for the administration to do away with shopping period in the near future.

“I do recognize that there are benefits to the system,” he said, “but what concerns me is the possibility that this might open the door to pre-registration.”

In addition to registering online for the first time this fall, students will also design and print their study cards using a web-based shopping tool on the my.harvard portal.

The FAS Registrar’s Office plans to debut three more enhancements to the my.harvard portal this fall, including new student record and directory capabilities and a customized communication packet with electronic copies of documents that were previously included in the hard-copy registration packet.

This online communication packet will be accessible to students through the my.harvard portal. Academic departments will also be able to upload important documents into the communication packet and specify a target group of students that can view the documents, such as a specific class year, house affiliation, or concentration.

Although the student record was also previously included in the registration packet, under the fall online initiative, it will be categorized separately from the communication packet and made accessible any time through the my.harvard portal.

The development of the five registration initiatives relied heavily on both faculty and student input: proposals were submitted to and approved by the Faculty Council in the spring term, and FAS Computer Services put together a focus group composed of seven students to help preview—or “beta test”—the new applications.

The first major initiative, which was approved by the Faculty Council on April 6, will replace the paper-based “I Am Here” registration card and eliminate the traditional registration day at the beginning of each term. Starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday, September 10, all Harvard College students will be able to register for the fall term by simply logging onto the new online registration tool via their my.harvard portal.

The system will automatically prevent students from registering if they have failed to meet certain prerequisites, such as a fully-paid termbill.

The freshmen registration deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 12, while upperclassmen will need to register by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, September 16. The registration tool will remain accessible after the deadlines, but students completing the process afterwards will be charged the regular $50 late fine.

Although the application will require students to confirm that they are on campus by using a computer on the Harvard network, Registrar officials acknowledge that crafty students may still be able to circumvent this system to extend their vacations well into late-September.

“There’s virtually no guarantee that someone using [the application] is within the Harvard network,” said Rick Osterberg ’96, a database specialist for FAS Computer Services.

Moreover, Kane admitted that, while the system will log IP addresses for future reference, the “Registrar’s Office will not position itself as the registration police,” Osterberg said.