A study was conducted to determine the location of authority in multi-unit two-year colleges. Inquiry forms listed 84 practices categorized as general (e.g., accreditation), business, curriculum, instruction, administrative personnel, teaching personnel, non-teaching personnel, research, services, student development services, and relationships with other schools and organizations. For each practice, administrators were asked to indicate whether the college or the district/head administrative office had the primary responsibility for initiating/planning, coordinating/supervising, evaluating/auditing, and changing/redirecting that activity. Forms were sent to 274 multi-unit community colleges, technical institutes, and university two-year colleges and to 80 multi-unit district headquarters. Study findings, based on responses from 108 institutions and 34 district offices from 26 different states, included the following: (1) responses showed great similarity among all respondent groups in college dominance of all of the functions of decision making; (2) collective bargaining was the only activity seen by all groups as the prime responsibility of the district/central office; and (3) colleges controlled practices listed under curriculum, instruction, student development services, and two of three categories of personnel management. The study report includes a description of a model for increasing decentralized authority in multi-unit systems. (LAL)