@brendannyhan The removals also appear significant. By removing directives to engage the public, it goes against Cardinal Newman's "Idea of a University" from the Victorian era. It's really regressive. It's not clear what would come of it; it would likely make the state taxpayer not an injured party of a loss of services.

By removing an obligation to intellectually advise government officials, it would likely make the state itself not an injured party from further truncations. That's besides the damage it would do by not providing the advice. One area where university advice greatly helps people: agriculture.

They're setting up to shut down their state schools with these removals. The obligations removed would dampen legal challenges by creating a situation that would make it harder to show injury or loss. This would make it easier to defend against legal challenges by having rulings thrown out as a matter of procedure due to lack of standing.