Although there are very few certainties regarding the parasite mystery at the University of Chicago, the prevailing theory for its purpose and origin is that it is produced and run by the company Playfair, a company that sells services related to team-building exercises, interactive presentations, and "fun at work." It's worth noting that Playfair sometimes goes by "Playfair Society"—that is, P.S. Playfair has visited college campuses across the country to produce games and ice-breaker activities. You can see their website here: http://www.playfair.com/index_noflash.htm
Playfair more or less confirmed their involvement with the university in an email sent out on August 2:
Here's a link to their video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da2bPkzOKhc&t=1s
It looks like Playfair has been hired by the administration to put on this thing as a sort of educational game for the incoming students. We already know that the the administration is involved, based on a few pieces of evidence, most notably that the "New Media and Games" Pre-Orientation Program appears to be connected to the game (based on the weird glitch puzzle in the flier) and is obviously sponsored by the university. You can see a description of the program here: https://cpo.uchicago.edu/page/new-media-and-games-pre-orientation-program
The flier with the glitch puzzle is available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/preorientationprograms/signupflier.jpg