Given the fact that an admin grants a dept admin access to the admin tools in order to create and maintain user accounts.* When a user logs in as admin, the admin can view, modify, and reset passwords for all user accounts. When a dept admin logs in, he/she can view, modify, and reset passwords for the user accounts that he/she created only.
Changes to Sakai 1.5 were made to the admin presentation versus the framework. The file that would need to be changed is the chef_users_list.vm in the sakai-dev src folder.
See doc file for instructions.
*Link to how Sakai admins can designate admin tools to dept admins: http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/FAQ/How+do+I+grant+access+to+admin+tools+without+sharing+the+Administrator+password%3F