This case study was an investigation of the role of the institutional culture of a university in the process of changing to reform-based practices for two college mathematics professors. A framework is presented for identifying and analyzing institutional norms and policies that are present and those lacking in supporting faculty efforts toward reform. The primary categories considered in the framework are the teaching and learning context, the professional community, and the university's reward system. This framework is applied to the cases, and findings indicate that institutional norms in the forms of priorities for how time is allocated to professional responsibilities (as part of the teaching context), and colleagues and administrators who understood and shared the professors' goals for reform (as part of the professional community) strongly influenced the professors' efforts toward change. Additionally, a reward system that recognized efforts to improve teaching and learning was critical in establishing a culture that promoted change. However, despite the fact that both professors were in the same mathematics department, the nature of the influence of these factors was not uniform. The institutional culture indeed had multiple layers that required examination for each professor's individual context. The findings help highlight the importance of institutional context for both K-12 and college level teaching and learning. The nature of these influential factors and the institutional layers were discussed for each case, along with implications for other institutions.