Being shrewd, involve the state university in (6)
I believe the answer is:
astute
'being shrewd' is the definition.
('astute' can be a synonym of 'shrewd')
'involve the state university in' is the wordplay.
'involve' indicates anagramming the letters.
'university' becomes 'u'.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'state' with letters rearranged gives 'astte'.
'astte' placed around 'u' is 'ASTUTE'.
(Other definitions for astute that I've seen before include "Wide" , "Shrewd and sagacious" , "Shrewd and clever" , "Able to make accurate assessments" , "Peerceptive" .)