At the heart of commitments to student success is a progressive concept of the relationship between students and institutions of higher education that embraces shared responsibility for the quality and outcomes of learning--and, therefore, for students' ability, capacity, and readiness to learn. Since learning is a complex activity of the whole person, and well-being--broadly defined--is a major determinant of students' readiness to learn, advancing student success requires attention to students as whole people, and to their individual and collective well-being. Attention to students as whole people, a shared responsibility for learning, and responsiveness to students' well being, taken together, reflect the existence and influence of an underlying ethic of care.