The unique and controversial companion volume to Daniel Seymour's On Q places Seymour's ideas and theories within the context of a call to action. In a series of realistic case-study lessons, he reveals how colleges and universities can dramatically improve their performance by drawing upon the concepts found in systems theory, quality management, and studies of organizational behavior. Seymour's goal is to overcome the current reactive mind-set and replace it with a proactive education environment where student success is the main objective. Once Upon a Campus can be put to use as an audit tool, as a guide for readers to identify problem areas in their institutions, and as a planning resource in evaluating and implementing overall performance improvement.

An era of accountability has swept over the higher education landscape. Everyone it seems-legislatures, think tanks, newspapers, magazines, books, and bloggers-wants to "hold colleges and universities accountable." They are attaching strings to budgets; producing reports that read like exposes; developing clever systems to rank and sort us; and writing books and articles that describe the end of college as we know it. According to them, we need to be reformed, reimagined, and rebooted. Momentum changes the conversation from how others are holding higher education accountable to why colleges and universities need to embrace the need to demonstrate their own responsibility. The responsibility paradigm that emerges fundamentally shifts the dialogue from fixing to preventing, from reacting to creating, from surviving to thriving. To implement this new paradigm, the dynamics of virtuous cycles are introduced and described. These upward spirals build on their own successes and result in growing confidence-a sense of vitality and resilience. The future of these institutions isn't the result of outside pressure or reformers. The future is something that can and should be created by those who take responsibility for it.

An era of accountability has swept over the higher education landscape. Everyone it seems-legislatures, think tanks, newspapers, magazines, books, and bloggers-wants to "hold colleges and universities accountable." They are attaching strings to budgets; producing reports that read like exposes; developing clever systems to rank and sort us; and writing books and articles that describe the end of college as we know it. According to them, we need to be reformed, reimagined, and rebooted. Momentum changes the conversation from how others are holding higher education accountable to why colleges and universities need to embrace the need to demonstrate their own responsibility. The responsibility paradigm that emerges fundamentally shifts the dialogue from fixing to preventing, from reacting to creating, from surviving to thriving. To implement this new paradigm, the dynamics of virtuous cycles are introduced and described. These upward spirals build on their own successes and result in growing confidence-a sense of vitality and resilience. The future of these institutions isn't the result of outside pressure or reformers. The future is something that can and should be created by those who take responsibility for it.