This report presents a study that examined the desired roles and characteristics of faculty co-governance bodies. The study was conducted as part of the creation of the National Data Base on Faculty Involvement in Governance Project at the University of Alabama which was developed as a collaborative project among individual scholars from across the United States in 1993, and currently has involved nearly 30 higher education institutions in data collection. Data for the current study were collected between 1994 and 1996 from eight institutions. A total of 713 faculty participated in the survey where faculty expressed their opinions about the roles of faculty in the governance process, general beliefs of faculty toward shared governance, and the characteristics of an ideal governance process. The results of the study show that faculty supported the concepts of improved communications and trust between faculty and administration. (Contains 14 references.) (SWM)