Historic inequality along with contracting social mobility in the U.S. have exacerbated the challenges facing students, families, and the community colleges that serve them. And despite some recent progress among students from traditionally underrepresented and underserved populations, the achievement gap persists. The purpose of this paper is not to reflect on how students may come from poverty or disenfranchised communities, or even how underprepared they are for college and the world of work. Instead, this paper aims to reflect on institutions and how faculty, staff, administrators and trustees of the "system" need to see their own role (intentionally or unintentionally) in perpetuating the inequities, or more importantly, in helping to achieve student equity. This report builds on the papers "Practically Speaking: Community College Practices That Help (Re)define Student Support" (ED548259) and "Student Support (Re)defined" (ED548257). The goals of this policy paper are the following: (1) Make the case for continued, focused funding for student equity; (2) Provide some tools and recommendations for colleges to implement, integrate, and institutionalize their equity plans to achieve groundbreaking outcomes; and (3) Encourage a statewide, open and honest conversation about student equity. In addition, this paper: (1) Provides a historical perspective of the circumstances in law and policy as they relate to community colleges that have led us to this point; (2) Provides some observations made by the RP Group and League Staff on student equity activities that seem promising; and (3) Provides examples of equity-focused partnerships. [For "Practically Speaking: Community College Practices That Help (Re)define Student Support," see ED548259. For "Student Support (Re)defined," see ED548257.]