The experience of professors at community colleges in California shows that a well-organized faculty can advocate for meaningful academic principles--by getting involved in local accreditation, serving on visiting teams, and sitting on the accreditation commission itself. California's community colleges are not in harmonious accord with outcomes-based accountability. Even amid the complaints that outcomes-based accreditation is an unfunded mandate, a passing trend, or, worse, a gateway to federal standardization, faculty members are employing data in support of student success and trying to align resources and institutional budgetary processes with course and program needs. If along the way such efforts bolster an institution's accreditation status and empower the professoriate, better still. While each college approaches accountability in its own distinctive manner, local faculty members take leading roles in determining the qualitative and quantitative measures for all courses and programs. The effort to shape the future of higher education in California through involvement in accreditation can provide useful insights to others. In this article, the author offers some recommendations, based on his experience in California, for faculty members at the local level.