Summer briefs for dog-day afternoons; Summer school at IBM

IBM executives from the corporation's field engineering division are spending the summer separated from families and jobs so that they can participate in an intensive liberal arts experience at Colgate University.

Twenty-six people make up the 1980 summer institute, which is based on the theory that a liberal arts education is important in developing the kind of leadership required at many levels in modern American industry.

The program was begun experimentally in 1965, and IBM and Colgate have cooperated in the venture ever since. A rigorous schedule has the students up early each day, engaging in physical fitness activities at 6 o'clock. Classes run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.