New England University (NEU) provides a case study of the risk that change might undermine an existing university asset in the context of growth in honors; it is a story about the efforts of faculty, students, and staff committed to evoking and sustaining excellence in one honors program to respond to the vision of a new president who placed growing the honors program as one of his highest priorities. Examination of the personalities, process, pitfalls, strategies, and successes in this case study contributes to the scholarly tradition of studying and documenting change in higher education. In the case of NEU, the author argues that the past ten years have witnessed a gradual and palpable advancement of the quality of honors education despite the fact that the program is now twice the size and has received significantly fewer resources than requested. The combination of careful planning, clear vision, good will, reasonable support from above, and a lot of hard work demonstrate that growth in honors and quality improvement can go hand in hand.