As part of a study of the implementation of affirmative action in academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, interviews were conducted with the heads of ten of the eleven departments and programs of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (FNSM). The data received were combined with written data available in administrative files and in the university's archives and affirmative action plan. There was strong consensus that it was the federal initiative that had resulted in the university's affirmative action plan. Among the faculties surveyed, there was considerable resistance to the concept of goals, seen to be identical with quotas, and there was strong concern for maintenance of standards. Debate, however, was generally low key. The percentages of available women and minority doctorates was low in most disciplines at the time; the distribution within existing faculty was more balanced than in some other divisions, however. Post-doctoral positions in FNSM are an area in which, for several reasons, affirmative action has not been implemented. In other areas of faculty hiring, the collegial contact approach was the most commonly used one for hiring women and minorities. Most department chairmen felt that strong upper-level administrative support was essential to successful implementation, and that budgetary considerations were important; none felt that faculty leadership was an important factor. The disciplines involved in the survey are biochemistry, botany, chemistry, computer and information science, geology and geography, mathematics and statistics, microbiology, physics and astronomy, polymer science and engineering, and zoology. (MSE)