Proceedings of the 1979 Financial Measures Conference which assess "Progress in Measuring Financial Conditions of Colleges and Universities" are presented. Focus is the prospective uses of financial indicators and the results of attempts to employ indicators at the institutional, state, regional, and federal levels for management, and policy analysis and implementation. Papers and authors are as follows: "The Federal Interest in Development of Financial Indicators for Policy Purposes" (Victor D. Wenk); "Progress at the Regional Level: Advances in the Use of Financial Indicators in the Regional Accreditation Process" (William Haywood); "State Level Uses of Financial Health Indicators--Problems in Assessing the Health of Public Institutions" (Paul Wing); "The History and Prospects for Financial Health Indicators in Maryland" (Frank A. Schmidtlein and Lucie Lapovsky); "The Use of Performance/Quality Data to Allocate Funds" (E. Grady Bogue); "Implications for State Policy Toward Public Institutions" (T. Michael Elliott); "Legislative Uses of Financial Data for State Policy-Making" (William D. Law, Jr.); "Independent Colleges: A Case Study Approach" (Nathan Dickmeyer and K. Scott Hughes); "Critical Assessment of What is Needed Now: Perceptions of the Business Officer" (D. Francis Finn); "The NCHEMS Indicators Project, NCHEMS Financial Health Indicators" (Douglas Collier); "50-State Study of Support for Higher Education" (Marilyn McCoy and D. Kent Halstead); "On the Horizon: Bringing Educational Quality into Financial Analysis" (Hayden W. Smith); "Plans for 1980" (Carol Frances); and "A Review of Progress Toward Implementation of the Recommendations of the 1978 Conference Report" (Carol Frances). (SW)