Active Directory Question:

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The "empty root domain" is an AD design element that has become increasingly popular at organizations with decentralized IT authority such as universities.

The empty root domain acts as a placeholder for the root of Active Directory, and does not typically contain any users or resources that are not required to fulfill this roll [sic]. [...] Only those privileges that have tree or forest-wide scope are restricted to the empty root domain administrators. Departmental administrators can work independently of other departments.

This politically neutral root domain provides a central source of authority and policy enforcement, and provides a single schema and global catalog that allows users to find resources anywhere in the university/district/state system. Individual IT departments retain a significant degree of independence and can control their own users and resources without having to worry that actions by administrators in other departments will disrupt their domain.