The new course is an adaptation of a course the two professors taught last year, Sociology 143: "American Society and Public Policy."

"We thought it was a good overview of current social problems in the U.S., so we decided to [bring it to the Core]," Waters said yesterday.

She added that the course will not be watered down because it is in the Core.

Harvard's biggest departments will have new pickings this year.

The Anthropology Department is listing an unusually high number of new courses this year--16, including seminars.

Meanwhile, the English Department will boast 44 new courses, including seminars. The new courses will include a seminar on Walt Whitman by Porter University Professor Helen Vendler. She will also teach a new course on five modern American poets.

Also debuting on the course list is a seminar by 1995 Nobel laureate and Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory Seamus Heaney.

Three other new courses signal the curricular shifts of the department. English 11a, 11b and 11c will be introductory courses on American fiction, American poetry and American literature and culture, reflecting a renewed emphasis on American literature.

Some of Harvard's top new faculty members will be offering classes right away for undergraduates.

Weiner Professor of Public Policy William Julius Wilson, Harvard's most prized recruit, will teach two seminars offered jointly through the Kennedy School and the Department of Afro-American Studies. In the fall, Wilson will lead a class on sociological perspectives on racial inequality in America; in the spring, he'll teach a seminar on race, class and poverty in urban America.

And the Kennedy School's Jane Mansbridge, recently hired from Northwestern University, will teach the seminar Government 90gc: "Representing Gender, Race and Class."

The New Look

The cover of the new course book is a picture of first-year students dining in the new Annenberg Hall.

Last year's picture featured construction in Annenberg; this year's cover was designed as "part of the restoration--it's the same kind of renewal theme," according to Hollis M. Lilly, a staff assistant in the Registrar's Office.

Changes to the structure and overall look of the catalog were minimal, Lilly said. He said the table of contents is easier to read, and the font size is also smaller in the new catalog.

Lilly said the catalogs are being sent this week to undergraduates, who should expect them in the mail within two weeks.

Those who can't wait that long can check out the newly-updated course guide on the World Wide Web at http://www.harvard.edu/FAScatalog. Students can also pick up a catalog at the Registrar's Office at 20 Garden St