Faculty participation in university governance is an accepted norm in American higher education. Nurse educators' participation in university governance provides opportunities to exert influence in organizational matters in order to maintain quality programs and serve the needs of society. The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify nurse educators' perceptions of faculty participation in university governance. A Faculty Participation Survey and Personal Data Questionnaire were completed by 401 nurse educators employed as full-time faculty in 13 Category I and 37 Category II institutions offering baccalaureate or higher degree nursing programs located within the Southern Regional Education Board. Data analysis techniques included descriptive statistics, principal components analysis, t-tests, and one way analyses of variance. Nurse educators' perceptions regarding faculty participation in university governance were reduced to eight factors. Respondents held no strong opinions about the factors underlying their perceptions regarding faculty participation in university governance. No statistical differences were found in nurse educators' perceptions according to the factors when institutional category was considered. Statistical significance $(p<.05)$ was found for Factor 2: Participation when age and tenure status were considered; Factor 7: Motivations when age was considered; and Factor 8: Groups when academic rank was considered. Implications for nursing education and research were generated. Recommendations included further testing of the eight factors identified in this study using different data gathering instruments and methodologies, using national samples of nursing faculty subjects, particularly within one institutional category, and controlling for institutional variables such as organizational structure and administrative leadership styles. Additional recommendations were to investigate differences between nurse educators' and administrations' perceptions of faculty participation in university governance and between nurse educators' perceptions and those of faculty in other disciplines; to compare actual versus perceived levels of participation in university governance; and to identify other factors which enhance or impede nurse educators' participation in university governance.