Higher education today is facing its own financial challenge. Conditions are grim nationwide. The fiscal climate exacerbates the pressure on colleges and universities to provide more resources and services--with less funding. For information technology (IT) professionals, the economic downturn presents an opportunity to stop, reprioritize, and consider new models for delivering services and resources. In this article, the author discusses how to sweat the assets for smarter IT support. "Sweating the assets" is variously defined as cutting costs, virtualizing, or getting as much use as possible out of what one already possesses. Providing effective IT support grows more challenging every day. The pervasiveness of information technology makes support a bigger job than ever. Support thus plays a strategic role in the work of higher education. And defining a key value can be an initial step in sweating the assets. The author stresses that maximizing the effectiveness of the IT support organization is an ideal way to sweat the assets of the higher education institution. (Contains 8 notes.)