This qualitative study attempted to answer the question of what constitutes a collegial environment. New faculty members (N=258) at five institutions were surveyed and 92 new faculty were interviewed. The study utilized a methodology of quantifying data from interviews, the Rasch analytic technique, in which the definition of collegiality was separated from the rating of how collegial an environment was considered to be, thereby providing a common definition of collegiality on which faculty could rate their institutions. The study found that no respondents rated their institutions as uncollegial, a few rated them as very collegial and most rated them as average. The characteristic of whether new or other faculty initiated interactions was not perceived as related to collegiality. No gender differences in perceived collegiality were found. By rank, instructors and new faculty at institutions with no ranks rank rated their institutions as more collegial than those who were either tenured on the tenure track. New faculty at 2-year institutions rated their institutions as more collegial than those at 4-year institutions. The collegial environment was characterized by intellectual support and a sense of community, with support of new faculty's scholarly endeavors and reciprocal interactions between faculty members. (PRW)