May 20, 1986

After nearly five days adrift on a life raft, eight crew members of a schooner were rescued from the Atlantic by a tanker yesterday, the Coast Guard said, and the survivors told how their ship had sunk north of Puerto Rico last week. Four of the crew, including the captain, are missing. The 136-foot, two-masted schooner, the Pride of Baltimore - which was to have accompanied the first tall ships into New York Harbor on the Fourth of July -heeled over and went down 240 miles north of San Juan last Wednesday about 60 seconds after being hit by a tornado-like wind, Coast Guard officials said. All 12 crew members were hurled into the sea. The survivors, six men and two women, stretched scant rations - food and water intended for six people over two days - until about 3 A.M. yesterday, when they spotted the running lights of a Venezuela-bound tanker.

Governor Cuomo formally declared his candidacy for re-election yesterday, but he refused to commit himself to serving a full four-year term and left open the possibility of a 1988 Presidential bid. Saying his administration had improved the quality of life for New Yorkers, the Governor cited increased spending on schools, roads and housing; a reduced crime rate, and other achievements that he said he wanted to expand on during a second term. ''I have decided to run for Governor,'' Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference in his Manhattan office, adding later, in response to questions, ''I have no plan to run for the Presidency.'' 'I Don't Have a Crystal Ball' But when pressed if that precluded all chances of his being a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1988, Mr. Cuomo said, ''I don't want to lock the door against eventualities that I don't even understand or imagine.''

The Supreme Court ruled today that government investigators do not need warrants to conduct aerial surveillance of areas that any pilot could legally fly over, including the fenced yards of private homes. The Court voted 5 to 4 in each of two cases to uphold warrantless aerial surveillance both of a suburban, fenced backyard where the police suspected marijuana was being grown and of a highly secured Dow Chemical Company complex in connection with possible air pollution violations. The Court ruled in each case that the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures did not apply to government investigators who use airplanes to observe or photograph places over which any private pilot might legally fly. Privacy Is Questioned The dissenters contended that the decisions would pave the way for unjustified use of modern technology by governments to intrude into the privacy of homes and businesses. But the majority said the marijuana defendant and Dow Chemical had no ''reasonable expectation of privacy'' from aerial photography in the observed areas, even though the photography of the Dow plant was done with a highly advanced $22,000 camera.

The Federal Reserve Board today proposed eliminating certain important barriers between bank holding companies and their thrift subsidiaries. Citicorp, which has acquired three large savings and loan associations in recent years, requested the changes. Experts saw the move as an attempt by the Fed to aid the thrift industry, saddled with hundreds of essentially insolvent thrift units, by making the acquisition of troubled savings and loan associations more attractive to bank holding companies. The Fed proposal would permit joint marketing and advertising of banking products and services; the sharing of customer information between the thrift and banking subsidiaries, and certain financial transactions and arrangements.

WASHINGTON, May 19 - Obsolete equipment, aging buildings and shortages of students and faculty in many important fields are creating critical problems threatening the future of university research, according to a report by a White House panel. ''Our present leadership in international science and technology is challenged; indeed, many consider it fragile and endangered,'' the report, by the Science Council's panel on the health of colleges and universities, said. ''Our universities today simply cannot respond to society's expectations for them or discharge their national responsibilities in research and education without substantially increased support.'' While the Government, universities and the private sector must forge ''a new partnership'' to keep the nation technologically competitive, the report said, there are real limitations on the extent to which industrial support can replace that of the Government.