In this paper the authors survey the literature surrounding the changing role of faculty in governing academic institutions and controlling their own welfare. The review of materials goes back to 1920, documenting the concern of the professoriate for achieving some form of participative governance in higher education generally, but junior college faculty are differentiated from higher education faculty as to attitudes toward school governance. It was noted that by 1965, new external forces entered the domain of higher education, modifying the heretofore relatively passive behavior of faculty toward their involvement in the decision making process, particularly in junior colleges. The new forces were characterized as unionization, collective bargaining, and strikes. To test the effect of these new forces on the structure and status of the groups involved, a purposeful selection of six Michigan community colleges was conducted. Eight respondents from each school were selected representing varying views towards unionization and collective bargaining. Four major findings were reported: (1) changes in decision making related to faculty welfare have occurred since 1965, (2) few changes in decision making related to academic affairs have been taken place, (3) size or structure of an organization or group has little relationship to its internal political characteristics, and (4) in many instances, a more tightly structured bureaucracy has resulted from faculty pressures in collective negotiations. (AL)