The study reveals that the federal government is making rapid strides toward the stage where information on a wide range of its activities, including programs of grants, contracts, and other forms of financial assistance to colleges and universities, will be stored and retrieved in machine-readable form in federal computer systems. Paralleling the growth of these federal management information systems will be the development of a network of computer-connected communications lines enabling information to be shunted throughout the entire multi-campus State University of New York, other large university systems, and ultimately a national educational network. Eventually, much of the information on federal programs needed by colleges and universities will be put directly into university information networks either in the form of magnetic tapes purchased or leased from the federal government, or by linking information systems directly together. Three types of experimental projects are proposed to provide the experience needed to design and operate an effective communications link between the federal government and the higher education community as a whole. The 3 experimental projects would lay the groundwork for the day when information transmission between Washington and the universities will be automatic, as part of a larger national and international network of knowledge. (WM)