Proceedings of a 1981 joint conference sponsored by the Southern Association for Institutional Research (SAIR) and the North Carolina Association for Institutional Research are presented. The conference theme was the practice of institutional research. Contents include preconference workshop reports, speeches, abstracts of papers, and reports of SAIR affairs. Documents and authors are as follows: "Nouns, Numbers and Neutrality" (keynote address, Jeffrey Holmes); "Role of National, Regional and State AIR Groups in Enclosing Professional Development" (panel report); "Research in Questions of Equity and Discrimination" (panel report); "Executive Order 11246 and Institutional Research" (William Fendley, Jr.); "Faculty Salary Sex Equity Studies at a Major Research University" (Rodney G. Hurley, Marilyn K. Brown, Frank A. Schmidtlein); "Testing Equity in Salary and Workload at Your Institution" (Gerald W. McLaughlin, James R. Montgomery); "Student Evaluation of Graduate Programs in Selected Southern Universities" (Carol A. Kayla, Virginia Eman Wheeless, Richard D. Howard); "A Markov Chain Application to College Admission Policy" (Robert M. Ussery); "Development of a Planning, Budgeting, and Evaluation Model" (Thomas R. Cochran, Nathaniel L. Felder); "Measurement of Quality in Off-Campus Credit Programs: A Non-Intrusive Approach by a State Agency" (Albert Lynd, Randall R. Powell); "Policy-Impact Analysis: Implications for Institutional Research" (James L. Morrison); and "Modeling with Microcomputers" (R. Gregory Litaker). Additional topics include: planning and management information systems, statewide institutional research, and students/attrition/demographics. (SW)