If I am thinking of the same Big 10 university (orange and black mini trucks sometimes with IIRC green flashing lights), the interesting thing is that they are also driven on public streets connecting the different parts of campus. Of course? When you are the largest employer in the state (indeed, when you are the state), I suppose rules don't apply.
Here in California I used to work for San Jose State University when I was attending. I worked an oncampus job where I was expected to drive a golf cart to and from campus (the job office itself was located off campus, about a mile away, during my tenure there). So I drove up to 25mph with that electric cart max on the street, and then also drove it all over campus on sidewalks. Very usable and pretty roughly equivalent to a kei car.
