A.I.D. Study Group Assays Cooperation With U.S. Colleges

A task force representing government, education, and philanthropy has been formed to make a survey of problems that have hindered the cooperative efforts of universities and the Agency for International Development.

The Agency, which administers United States foreign aid, depends to some extent on university resources and personnel. The problems that have inhibited the joint efforts of the universities and the A.I.D. lie with the universities as well as with the agency, according to John W. Gardner, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and recently appointed chairman of the task force.

In his announcement of the survey Sunday, Mr. Gardner said: "Certain problems that have developed in the execution of those contractual arrangements, including such things as the amount of freedom for individual research given to professors under A.I.D. contracts, the reluctance of universities to release faculty members for long-term A.I.D. programs, and the loss of tenure and status for professors who do accept prolonged A.I.D. assignments."

A member of the task force, speaking for Mr. Gardner, said that while the agency was interested in tapping more university skills it "might do more to strengthen the resources of the universities."

The force will meet in early September with a target date late in the year for completing the survey. The first step will be the gathering of data from files, reports and interviews.