Bester – there are hundreds of varying federal and state legal requirements that apply to state run universities. As noted multiple times above, most (but not absolutely all) apply to PSU. Such as the PA Right to Know law and the First Amendment. But NONE of those would apply to UPenn,
PSU is quite typical in its set up as a state flagship university. Take the time to compare it to other state flagships and you’ll see.
State flagships very often have a different deal than lower tier state universities do. In Virginia, for example, UVA, W&M and Va Tech operate at a statutory level of autonomy greater than the other VA state schools do. But they are all state schools by any reasonable definition of such. State-run and state-related may be a little different, but they are both state and certainly not private.
And 7% of a big budget is still HUGE public dollars. PSU would need to bump its endowment from $3.5 billion to $9.5 billion if it lost its state appropriations.
Petula – UNC/CH functions closer to the old fashioned State U model (higher level of state support, lower level of OOS enrollment, etc.) than most of its peers among the high end publics.