Since IT departments are generally regarded as cost centres & therefore they are usually either understaffed or expected to keep costs to the absolute minimum by upper management this is hardly surprising.

In this particular case, the department is in a double bind: the success of phishing emails threatens the ability of the university to send email to many other major hosts on the net. If you sat the users down and asked them which they need more, a reliable email to people outside the university or access to Google Docs, then the decision isn't so clear cut all of a sudden is it?