A systems model, developed by David Easton, is used to provide some clarity to many of the issues involved with collective bargaining in American higher education. The model serves as an illustration for understanding how decisions are made, and as a conceptual frame of reference to analyze the political situation. The issues surrounding collective bargaining encompass the political atmosphere in which the university's survival is challenged in the face of the changing nature and function of academic management, governance, and leadership in higher education settings. Further, there are the internal issues of increased faculty authority in policy making, administrative loss of this authority, the future direction of the university, and the changes in decision-making and control. The model provides a view of competing collective bargaining forces and interests. Survival in an era of turbulence, it is suggested, will require flexibility and adaptability from all major players: faculty, administrators, students, and society. The key to this survival will emanate from the feedback loop, the line of information, and will depend upon the balance and oscillation of the inputs and outputs of information into and through the institution. Contains 15 references. (GLR)