The National Science Foundation (NSF) is going to announce a major change in its patent policies that will allow qualifying institutions to be guaranteed in advance the royalties from faculty inventions that result from NSF projects. (Author)

Discusses 3 alternatives for university-based research. (PG)

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded several grants to study effects of and possible solutions to the problem of "acid rain"; pollution from atmospheric nitric and sulfuric acids. The research program is administered through North Carolina State University at Raleigh and will focus on biological effects of acid rain. (JMF)

Notes popular ideas about workload supported or challenged by recent research and recommends the use of standardized categories that define the components of workload, developed by a task force at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMA), so that results of workload studies may be compared. (JT)

Author comments on the campus revolt at Northwestern University and states that educational reforms demanded by campus strikes are designed to open the university to the community, to student government and to all political and social expediencies. (IR)

The board that advises the Secretary of HEW on ethics has given a qualified approval for further review of federal funding for research on human embryos conceived in the laboratory. Issues and concerns that influenced the board's decision are addressed. (JMD)

Noting that junior college institutional research is being affected by two major influences--changing student populations and information demands of state and federal agencies--the author suggests specific questions for research important to college operations and emphasizes the need to reconcile the frequently contradictory internal and external…