Microsoft spent a lot of effort when building Win2k to ensure that systems that are not aware of the active directory will function normally in the presence of a Windows 2000 server. Windows NT and 9x clients see a Windows 2000 server as if it were an NT 4 server and can interact with it normally. There is no Yale-wide push for everyone to go to Windows 2000. Unless there is some reason to roll it out within a local area, normal turnover of machines should produce a gradual increase in Win2K client and server systems across the university as time goes on. NT 4 domains will be supported indefinitely with trusts to the YALE domain.
Administrative backup is built into the structure in case of administration problems.
The way to work around this is to create accounts on the local server so that a visitor can use local resources. Work is being done on a better and quicker way to get accounts for these kinds of people more quickly. Password policies are set at the domain level only. For example, if an area needed to use a 10-character password instead of the current minimum length of 8 characters that would require them to be in a domain of their own. A group is running software that requires additional services to be running on AD domain controllers beyond those provided centrally.