February 25, 1986

Colleges with major athletic programs have drawn criticism, often from young athletes who look beyond college to lucrative careers in professional sports, for the decision to require that new student athletes earn minimum scores on college-entrance tests. In addition, some colleges, predominantly black institutions with long traditions of funneling superb athletes into the professional sports leagues, have protested that the new rule would work a hardship on them and their students. The standardized tests discriminate against blacks, they contend. The rule was adopted last year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I, which represents the major colleges. The N.C.A.A. members have stood their ground against the protests, although they did agree last month to lower the minimum scores for the next two years. The assenting members, stung by past criticism that they exploited the prowess of athletes and yet failed to educate them, said that the new requirement, Rule 48, was needed for the institutions to fulfill their educational responsiblities.

JUST four weeks after history's worst space disaster, much is already known about the events and circumstances preceding the space shuttle Challenger's explosive end. Suspect components, cold weather and some apparent lapses in human judgment all seem to be implicated. The pieces of the puzzle, when fitted together, begin to tell of the roles of key engineers and managers in critical shuttle decisions, the knowledge available to them and withheld from them and the pressures under which they worked and made the decision to launch the Challenger on its last mission - a mission that would bring the American space enterprise to an indefinite halt. With public hearings into the disaster set to resume today, a cascade of new disclosures is likely to expose other flaws in shuttle systems and in the decision-making process leading up to the launching on Jan. 28 that killed all seven aboard the Challenger. More questions will undoubtedly be raised about malfunctions in the right booster rocket. New evidence will be presented about serious safety concerns that, for reasons that are still mysterious, were not called to the attention of top space agency managers.

Mayor Koch said yesterday that he had become too close to Democratic party leaders and, in pursuit of political support to resolve the city's fiscal problems more than eight years ago, had allowed them to exercise ''undue influence'' over city government. ''I am embarrassed, I am chagrined, I am absolutely mortified that this kind of corruption could have existed and that I did not know of it,'' Mr. Koch said, reading from a speech at City Hall that had been contemplated for several weeks, according to his aides. Going slightly further than he has before in accepting responsibility for the atmosphere of wrongdoing that has descended on his administration, the Mayor acknowledged that ''we let our guard down, and now we're paying the price.'' He went on announce another new plan to root out what he called the ''cancer'' of corruption in his government.

Bond prices rose sharply yesterday, after the Federal Reserve arranged a temporary purchase of securities that some market participants said was an early sign of an easing in monetary policy. Not all analysts agreed that the central bank's decision to buy $1.5 billion of securities overnight for a customer account was a signal of any change in monetary policy. But among traders, the transaction was quickly seized on as a sign of an easing in monetary policy that has been widely predicted since the middle of 1985. ''Investors were already flooding into the bond market, and this just heightened the frenzy,'' said one institutional bond salesman.

An article in Metropolitan Report last Saturday about the Board of Estimate's approval of a plan to establish a Navy base at Staten Island incorrectly described the resolution and misidentified a city official who gave details of the proposal. The board voted to support the plan and authorized an appraisal of the property to help determine the sale price; it did not vote to transfer the property to the Navy. The official is John C. Biggins, interim commissioner of the Department of Ports and Terminals.

International Ferdinand E. Marcos ignored pressure from President Reagan and members of his own Government and military to resign, declaring he was still in control of the Philippines. Mr. Marcos said he planned to proceed with his scheduled inauguration today, although there was a growing consensus within the country that his proclaimed election victory had been fraudulent. [ Page A1, Columns 4-6. ] Corazon C. Aquino was sworn in as President in the provisional Philippine Government declared by military men opposed to Ferdinand E. Marcos. Her authority is moral suasion, the widely accepted view being that she had victory stolen from her in the Feb. 7 election. [ A13:1-3. ]

More than four months ago, Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d proposed a new way for the rich countries to help the poor countries cope with their huge debts. It was a program, analysts said then, that offered the least possible pain to all. Since then, however, not a single debtor has signed on for the ''Baker plan,'' as the proposal quickly became known. And now analysts say that the fall in oil prices and other new perturbations in the international economy could require stop-gap aid for the debtors that would delay implementation of the plan even longer. ''Unless all parties come together in reasonably short order and with real credibility,'' the Morgan Guaranty Bank writes in a new assessment of the plan, ''it will be difficult to translate the Baker initiative into a workable plan, let alone into working practice.''

A dispatch from Tuba City, Ariz., on Jan. 20 about the translation of the Bible into Navajo mischaracterized the achievement. It was the first translation of the complete Bible into an American Indian language in this century, according to the American Bible Society, which published the new translation. Previously the complete Bible was translated into Algonkian in 1663, Plains Cree in 1861, and Dakota in 1879.

The Reagan Administration regards the drop in world oil prices with equanimity and is resisting any pressure to arrest the slide, according to a wide array of sources inside and out of the Administration. Although critics point to various financial and foreign policy risks in this course, the Administration maintains that these are outweighed by the benefits of faster economic growth and lower inflation. As a result, few analysts expect the Administration to take any steps to intervene, such as by imposing an oil import fee. It has repeatedly opposed such fees, arguing that declining oil prices represent the natural unwinding of the 1970's run-up and that consumers should be allowed to benefit.

The White House called today for Ferdinand E. Marcos to surrender power and virtually offered a United States plane to take the Philippine President to safe haven in the United States. As Administration officials met through the day in a crisis atmosphere, the White House said it would be ''futile'' for Mr. Marcos to prolong his rule through force. ''A solution to this crisis can only be achieved through a peaceful transition to a new government,'' the White House spokesman, Larry Speakes, said in a statement shortly after a telephone call at 5 A.M. between Mr. Reagan and his ranking advisers. Few Options Are Seen Congressional leaders of both parties and key Reagan Administration officials made it clear later in the day that a consensus was emerging that Mr. Marcos faced little choice but to leave the Philippines after 20 years in power. Mr. Speakes said the United States would be ''of assistance'' to Mr. Marcos should he seek asylum.

Half the American public, persuaded that the country's farmers face serious economic problems, wants to see an increase in Federal spending to help them, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll shows. The support of 50 percent for more spending, up from 36 percent a year ago, was underlined when 55 percent of the public said they were willing to pay more taxes if an increase would help troubled farmers save their land. Only 12 percent favored a decrease in spending, down from 14 percent a year ago. A key reason for those views, the poll of 1,174 adults suggests, is a deep reservoir of good will in the general public for their food producers who, as many see it, also nurture much of what is best in the American character. Many also have more personal concerns. Thirty percent said they fear -mistakenly, according to leading agricultural economists - that widespread failures among small farms would lead to food shortages or rising costs. The poll, conducted by telephone last Wednesday and Thursday, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. Fears of food shortages or rising costs are generally scoffed at by farm economists, who say that whatever happens to the small farmer, the land will be planted and that farming will remain a highly competitive business.

Merrill Lynch & Company informed its 10,600 retail brokers yesterday of a sweeping new compensation schedule aimed at giving the nation's largest brokerage firm a stronger presence in banklike services. The plan slightly reduces the amount brokers - known in Merrill parlance as financial consultants -receive as their part of the commissions on stock and bond transactions. But for the first time, the brokers will be entitled to a share of the income Merrill earns annually from such lines of business as Cash Management Accounts, second-mortgage loans and margin account loans. The new schedule, due to take effect next week, provides incentives for Merrill brokers to shift the emphasis of their business slightly away from selling stocks and bonds and more toward accumulating a customer's assets under the firm's management and expanding consumer credit relationships.