Another take on this... (Score 1)

Working for an engineering school in the IT department supporting individual academic departments, we have a fine line to walk, we need to be able to manage the computers and provide support, however we have to keep in mind that this is an educational institution, we're there to help the students first and foremost. We try to do as many things as unobstrusively as possible (SSH-based for Linux machines, Domain Policy based for Windows machines), and while we have been taking to turning RDP on machines, it's on a request basis. For the users who feel they are capable of maintaining their own machines, we provide them the option of doing just that, with the understanding that, if they break it beyond their abilities, repair work for their machine is the lowest priority. We get this understanding in writing and it only applies to that faculty members' desktop(s); lab machines are kept under our control as they are for the benefit of all users in the departments we work for.