The purpose of this study was to ascertain how the leaders, faculty and administrative staff perceive the role of shared governance in their respective institutions of higher education. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Committee T developed an instrument to measure the state of shared governance at universities. The original survey was modified and sent to participants who were leaders, faculty, and administrative staff working at public universities in the State of New York. The study was led by five research questions. The results indicated agreement, to strong agreement, with how leaders, faculty, and administrative staff perceive the role of shared governance, except on two items. The majority of the faculty members disagreed that they have timely access to the information they need to make informed decisions or recommendations on institutional matters. The majority of the faculty disagreed that they had a strong influence on the selection of academic administrators. There were no significant differences among the perceptions of the participants. Correlation analysis indicated a significant relationship between equality and appropriate boundaries. There was a significant relationship between faculty autonomy and appropriate boundaries, equality, and acknowledgment of leaders. There was a significant relationship between stakeholders' input and appropriate boundaries, equality, faculty representativeness, acknowledgement of leaders, and faculty autonomy. There was a significant relationship between mutuality and equality, and faculty autonomy. There was an inverse significant relationship between experience in higher education and faculty autonomy, and age. There was a significant relationship between experience at a current position and age, and experience in higher education. A discriminant analysis was attempted to determine the extent to which collegiality, appropriate boundaries, influence, faculty representativeness, acknowledgement of leaders, faculty autonomy, stakeholders' input, and mutuality predict whether a respondent is a leader, faculty, or an administrative staff. None of the variables were significant predictors of role because of a small sample size. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]