As I understand it, the state schools answer directly to the state, their employees are state employees. The “state-related” schools are happy to receive subsidies from the state gov’t, but are their own independent (well, quasi-independent) entities.
Yep.
I had no idea land grant colleges apparently still get part of their operating budget from the feds, giving them a slightly different legal status. Never occurred to me, and I used to work at Iowa State.