Higher education's accountability movement has brought pressure to colleges and universities to do all that they can to impact student access and success. Strategic collaboration among academic and student affairs leaders has become vital in this effort. While most institutions can benefit from strategic collaboration, community colleges in particular are vulnerable when the leaders of its two primary functional areas do not set out in the same direction, since community colleges are much more influenced by market forces than public and private four-year institutions. The first part of this article reviews the historical reasons why collaboration has been largely unnecessary. The link between collaboration and differentiation is then explored, as well as the necessity of using differentiation to position an institution in the educational marketplace. Finally, a case study from Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington is reviewed to demonstrate how strategic collaboration between academic and student affairs can be used to develop and implement programs that add value and benefit students. (Contains 1 table.)