Abstract
Three institutions vary greatly in the manner in which academic departments receive IT services. A central computer services unit provides the IT infrastructure at Messiah College, a small private liberal arts college, and works with the academic departments in budgeting and prioritization of projects. The School of Education at Cal State Los Angeles, a medium-large, urban, public, comprehensive university, has IT infrastructure and certain services provided by the central administration with one FTE IT technician to augment services. The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UCLA, a large urban public research university, provides much of its own IT infrastructure and services. Services and strategies are described, differences examined, and critical success factors are highlighted.