A new model among student affairs professionals, faculty, and academic administrators is emerging at colleges and universities across the country. This "partnership model" or "partnership movement" is characterized by collaborations and connections. These partnerships can serve as a transformational tool to enhance the quality of the students' educational experience in its most important aspects. This paper discusses the sources of impetus of this model. It discusses the history and the language associated with student affairs as well as the changing paradigm in student learning. Next, it explores the faculty perspective and the challenges they face in the classroom. These challenges include: students spending many hours per week involved in employment; higher education no longer being the central feature of the average college student's life; student skills levels decreasing; many part-time and non-tenured faculty; teachers growing older and more distant from the concerns and priorities of their students; and the use of technology. Then, five barriers to effective partnerships are examined. These barriers are: traditional separations among academic disciplines and departments; lack of significant, recognized rewards for faculty participation in partnerships; significant turnover in student affairs staff, particularly at entry levels; budget and reporting structures that limit scopes of operation; and "cross-cultural" communication issues. Ten applications of the partnership model are discussed. This paper concludes by explaining how successful partnerships put students at the center. (Contains 17 references.) (MKA)