Activities and findings of the Statistical Analysis Group in Education (SAGE), which sought (1) to develop and validate financial and nonfinancial indicators of college or university viability and (2) to measure institutional viability of types of colleges related to federal policy goals for higher education. Development of the longitudinal file (1974-75 through 1977-78) containing statistics on virtually all U.S. colleges are discussed, along with reliability and validity issues regarding the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) data. Sixty-one indicators were selected as possibly being related to institutional viability. All had been suggested by experts in the field, used in previous research, or published in reports on the status of higher education institutions. To validate the relation of these indicators to institutional viability, certain colleges were identified as probably being in distress in each year based on a combination of objective measures in the file: closure; default on a federal loan; and extreme enrollment declines, reduction in faculty salaries, declines in current fund balances (for private colleges), and declines in current fund revenues (for public colleges). Almost no public universities, four-year colleges, or private universities were identified as being in distress. The indicators found to be related to distress were used to construct a summary index of viability defined separately for each educational sector. The summary measure of viability accurately classified colleges as being in distress in the year for which it was developed--1978. Distributions of the summary measure (converted into five grades of viability--"A" down to "E") are displayed for a variety of different kinds of colleges (e.g., traditionally black colleges, women's colleges, two-year vocational colleges). Twelve kinds of colleges were found to frequently receive low scores on the summary measures (i.e., grades of "D" or "E"). Means on the 61 indicators are appended. (Author/LB)