The opinions of representatives of 108 western colleges and universities concerning federal regulations in general, and Department of Education regulations in particular, were surveyed. The following areas of federal regulation appear to be of greatest concern to the western colleges and universities: student assistance, especially Pell Grants and National Direct Student Loans; veteran's cost-of-instruction payments, especially the provisions for computing allowances three times a year; cooperative education, especially the regulations pertaining to the number of job placements required; civil rights/affirmative action/equal employment opportunity, including the multiple and cross-cutting enforcement efforts, duplicative data gathering requirements, and lack of definitive interpretations of key regulations; programs for the handicapped, especially the seeming overreliance on renovating existing facilities and lack of federal funding to finance the tasks; Vocational Education Data System, such as the complexity and unreliability of the quantitative data being requested; disposal of hazardous wastes, especially those regulations that do not differentiate between small-scale users and large industrial producers; financial accountability, particularly the time and effort reporting requirements of OMB Circular A-21; and Internal Revenue Service requirements, especially those related to ERISA regulations and those that do not conform to accepted nonprofit accounting conventions. Information was also obtained on graduate support, institutional assistance, library resources, teacher training, and health and safety. (SW)