Forty colleges and life insurance presidents met to discuss key historical and contemporary factors influencing fiscal management in higher education, including inflation, salaries, diminishing enrollment figures, energy costs, federal regulations and the increasing cost of research. Differences and similarities between business and academia were outlined, and a program of mutual cooperation between both sectors was advocated. It was suggested that academic administrators and faculty representatives should: define a specific mission; demonstrate fiscal and educational leadership through efforts to attain financial stability; study other industries that have experienced declines; develop strategies to counter demographic enrollment trends; exercise leadership on the secondary and elementary school levels; reorient course offerings to different age and field markets; encourage modification of existing federal tax laws; establish self-regulating agencies within higher education; consider institutional mergers and consortia; and improve public and business communications. Business organizations can help academic institutions by improving corporate tuition programs for employees, increasing matching gift programs by two or three times what alumni associations donate and inaugurating in-house enrichment programs for employees. An advocacy alliance of people in business and academia was proposed in an effort to influence public educational policies with private corporate clout. Additional material includes a list of unanswered fiscal questions, a conference program and a list of conference participants. (DC)