Hi Heather, You like to ask tough questions! I suspect UCLA always has “ or at least since 1984 which was when I started here “ had a development culture. It's not only a technology related culture. I think it stems from a fundamental philosophy that is fairly broadly held “ that the essence of UCLA is about faculty innovation in both teaching and research and that the way you sustain that is by placing resources as close to faculty as possible. To give two examples: when server based computing and personal computing both came along “ they were needed and, therefore, were funded in local units (sometimes for a faculty member). It's also less about an institution embracing emerging technologies as it is about enabling individuals to discover and follow their own creative directions.
Be careful what you wish for! It is often hard to see the appropriate timing and methods to recognize when what was at first an innovation is now a utility and should be done as a common service, freeing up local IT to move on to supporting the next innovation and, in the process, improving over-all support to faculty and students.
So, no, I don't think it happened over time except perhaps in scope, tracking the steady increase in use of IT in every aspect of the academic mission.
How to cultivate a similar comfort level? Put appropriate resources where you want it to happen. If you can do that AND keep faculty and IT staff connected around working on common problems and solutions together while sustaining individual innovation, you'll have achieved the best of both!
Please let me know if I haven't adequately addressed the issues you raised.
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