June 23, 1981

DONALD NEVINS, who majored in history at the College of Staten Island, has left behind Caesar and Charlemagne and gone on to work as a broker on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where an understanding of the causes of the Peloponnesian War probably never earned anyone an extra buck. While Mr. Nevins, a 1977 graduate, did not study history with the intention of trading General Motors shares, he says there is no reason why liberal arts majors should not be able to succeed in the marketplace. Not all corporate recruiters seem to endorse Mr. Nevins's hypothesis. Liberal arts majors, particularly those in the humanities, have grown accustomed in recent years to being rebuffed by business and industry, though a few graduates like Mr. Nevins have been fortunate enough to get jobs in fields that have no outward relationship to their undergraduate studies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it had censured one of the nation's largest accounting firms, Arthur Andersen & Company, in an administrative proceeding for numerous alleged deficiencies in the firm's audits of two public corporations, Mattel Inc. and Geon Industries. At the same time, in a separate matter, the S.E.C. released copies of unusual correspondence between the firm and the commission's enforcement division concerning a request by the commission that Arthur Andersen explain how it would handle various questionable payments by American companies involved in foreign business. Arthur Andersen consented to the order of censure while neither admitting nor denying the alleged accounting deficiencies, which involve financial statements in the early 1970's.

The United States Supreme Court agreed yesterday to review a lowercourt ruling that employees of the state-owned Long Island Rail Road were subject to New York State's Taylor Law, which bans strikes by public employees. The outcome of the court review could have a significant bearing on contract negotiations next winter between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the 17 unions now representing the railroad's employees. It could also affect the willingness of the authority to operate the Conrail commuter lines in Westchester County. The Reagan Administration has proposed that the authority and local agencies in other states operate such Conrail lines.

Eugene V. Rostow, President Reagan's nominee to head the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, said today that the Reagan Administration would probably not be able to begin formal negotiations with the Soviet Union to limit strategic weapons until March 1982. ''It may be that a brilliant light will strike our officials,'' said Mr. Rostow, defending the timetable in his confirmation Excerpts from statement, page 6. hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ''But I don't know anyone who knows what it is yet that we want to negotiate about.''

The people who listen to E.F. Hutton talk may soon be hearing some new sounds, as the Wall Street firm jumps from the brokerage business into lending. The springboard for the new thrust is a credit company, now called the E.F. Hutton Credit Corporation, acquired in May from the International Paper Company for $55 million. The credit company, which last year had $440 million in receivables, leases everything from computers and machine tools to railroad cars and airplanes. And Hutton thinks that some day it could move into consumer lending as well. ''The idea is to provide money to people rather than just taking it from them for investment,'' said Robert Fomon, Hutton's chairman. ''It is a logical additional form of financial service.''