Dozens of new course offerings are detailed inside the bright teal cover of the 1992-93 course guide. But students shopping for courses next week may be disappointed--the prime selections won't meet until spring semester.

Celebrity filmmaker and Visiting Lecturer Spike Lee's English department seminar on screenwriting? Not offered until the spring. Lee's Afro-American Studies course on contemporary African-American cinema? On hold until spring semester.

Two brand-new introductory Earth and Planetary Sciences courses on the cutting edge of Harvard's environmental studies efforts? You guessed it. They aren't offered until the spring.

Still, students seeking the perfect course this semester may at least find something interesting.

History is just one of several departments hiring new faculty members and changing requirements this year.

According to History Head Tutor Caroline C. Ford, for the first time in several years the department will be offering its survey in American History, the History 71a/71b sequence, taught by newcomer Instructor in History Ronald Yanosky and Lecturer on History Vincent Tompkins.

Yanosky will also boost American history offerings with several other courses, History 1667, "Populism in American Society and Politics," (offered in the fall) and History 1668, "The Gilded Age." However, some popular courses in American history, including History 1603, "The Old South," and History 1605, "Topics in American Women's History" remain bracketed for yet another year.

Besides the History 71 survey course there will be two other modern American history offerings including a class on Asian Immigrants taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of History Xiao-huang Yin, offered in the spring.

History 1690b, "American Intellectual History Since 1900," usually offered in the spring, will be offered in the fall this year and is sure to attract crowds.

Concentrators will also have greater flexibility in fulfilling requirements, Ford says. In the past, two elective courses outside of the major area of history had to be taken within the department. Starting with the class of 1994, concentrators will be able to take those classes outside the department, provided they first obtain department approval. In addition, general exams will now be specific to the concentrator's field of interest, rather than the same for every concentrator.

The appointment of seven new faculty members to the traditionally strong Government department, says Head Tutor Paul Pierson, could provide thesis advisors for many junior and senior concentrators. Course offerings, however, basically remain in the same rotation, since many of the appointments are replacing faculty members who left this summer.

Biology concentrators will have one more requirement to worry about for their theses. Students taking Biology 90r, "Supervised Research," which for many students leads to a thesis, will now have to take a course on laboratory safety procedures. The short course, called "a major break-through for the safety office" by Biology Undergraduate Coordinator Barbara S. Cerva, will feature a movie and a talk on laboratory safety procedures.

Departments like Afro-American Studies and Romance Languages and Literatures also have something special in store for concentrators this year. While many undergraduates already know of Lee's return, two literary stars are expected to teach at the University.

American writer Jamaica Kincaid will teach one course--Afro-American Studies 132z, Domestic Life in Literature--scheduled for the fall. South American writer Mario Vargas-Llosa plans to teach Spanish 165, a course on Jose Maria Arguedas, in the fall.

New Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell will remain busy as a graduate educator, teaching an upper-level course in English 275t, "American Literary Emergence as a Postcolonial Phenomenon." The scholar will also chair the expository writing department.