UCONN's Decades Long Housing & Environmental Crises - Their Impacts on Mansfield: A Chronology of Key Events

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." 

Lord Acton

In the space of fifty years the University of Connecticut has acquired a substantial range of governmental powers and fiscal authorities that have overpowered the relatively limited municipal authorities delegated to the town of Mansfield by the state legislature.  Since UCONN is not governed by Mansfield's land use, housing or environmental laws, town residents have been challenged to find means to hold the university accountable for its decisions - especially those that have had significant adverse impacts on the town. 

To fully understand the extent to which Mansfield's housing and environmental problems have been influenced by UCONN, the following chronology of key events is intended to illustrate some of the consequences of the disequilibrium of powers between town and gown.  Specifically, UCONN's failure to make significant investment in new dormitories to meet its ever growing student population has resulted in thousands of students living off campus in what still is a very rural town with limited public services. 

Unlike Mansfield where members of the town's governing body are elected by its residents, UCONN's administrative leadership is appointed by the Board of Trustee's and/or by the University President. Twenty one individuals constitute the Board of Trustees with 12 of the appointments made by the Governor and four other ex-officio members accountable to the Governor - including the Governor himself and members of the Governor's cabinet. The Board's makeup clearly stacks the deck in favor of the Governor and his political and economic strategies for the university.  Neither the Board of Trustees nor the President of the University can be voted out of office by residents of Mansfield or even by the students or faculty of the university.  

What are some of the consequences of this autocratic system of power? Let's take a few historic examples of UCONN's decisions that have had impacts over several generations.

Prohibiting Fraternities On Campus: the Consequences

One of the results of UCONN's autocratic form of government has been a tendency toward unilateral decision making with spillover impacts on Mansfield residents.  For example, when President Homer Babbidge prohibited fraternities from living on campus in 1969,  the immediate consequence was the emergence of off-campus fraternity houses within Mansfield's residential zones that were entirely incompatible with those seeking quiet neighborhoods to raise their children. 

Initially only a few hundred fraternity members lived off campus but over time, as fraternities became more popular, hundreds of fraternity members moved into Mansfield neighborhoods.  Fraternity membership climbed from 280 in 1979 to 800 in 1987 (Hartford Courant, June 4, 1987, p. C4B) and by 2016 had reached 2,400. Eventually the university administrators decided it was appropriate to return some fraternity members to on-campus living and, with the support of state legislation that provided bonding, UCONN became one of a handful of state universities to build fraternity housing. Opened in 2004, Husky Village represents an important compromise between the needs of the town, the university and the fraternal organization.  While on campus housing is a good thing, UCONN only accommodates 300 of the 2,400 fraternity members at its "Husky Village" fraternity dormitory complex.

UCONN's Husky Village - Opened in 2004 exclusively for fraternity members

Where are all of the other fraternity members living? Thanks to Homer Babbidge, they live throughout Mansfield.  One of the first off-campus fraternity houses was approved by the Mansfield Zoning Board of Appeals in the 1980s. While this may have been an acceptable decision at the time, the Mansfield Planning and Zoning Commission felt a town-wide approach was needed. To better control fraternities, on February 9, 1990 the Commission defined such groups as those recognized by the Office of Greek Life at UCONN or Eastern Connecticut State University and limited their locations to business zones. 

Yet even this zoning measure was not enough.  Fraternities also benefited from the loose zoning definition of "family" that existed prior to 2010 enabling up to four students to live as a family. After nearly twenty years of of unending fraternity parties and other neighborhood disruptions, the Commission decided it was time to tighten its definitions of boarding house and family. On August 5, 2010 the Commission limited families to  three (3) unrelated persons based on a series of complex criteria for what constitutes a family. 

Whether by design or accident, Mansfield's regulations are the most complicated and confusing definition of family amongst the 169 municipalities in the state of Connecticut (Vidich Zoning Study, 2017). The definition of family is also virtually unenforceable within the limits of American privacy laws. The town's efforts, while laudable, have been ineffective.  With constitutional constraints on land use enforcement options and the university's acquiescence in off campus living arrangements, thousands of fraternity students are living in an uneasy relationship with the townspeople in virtually all neighborhoods of Mansfield.  Responding to this ongoing crisis, on June 5, 2017 the Commission once again revised its definitions of family and fraternity/sorority to broaden the range of organizations that fall within their regulatory purview. Simply avoiding the label of a Greek fraternal organization is now no longer an option for those attempting to evade the claws of Mansfield's zoning regulations.

Should President Babbidge have consulted with Mansfield's governing body before making his decision to ban fraternities from living on campus? Twenty-twenty hindsight would be easy if dramatic changes in student housing occurred in relatively short periods of time. Unfortunately, because the problems of fraternity housing emerged slowly over a thirty year period few Mansfield residents took notice of the long term consequences of Babbidge's 1969 decision. Each year off-campus fraternity housing increased ever so slightly so each increase seemed innocuous enough that few of the proverbial local feathers were ruffled until the fraternity housing became a nagging public nuisance.

UCONN's Failure to Build Dormitories leads to Rise of Absentee Landlords

Fraternity housing was in reality a smaller piece of a much larger student housing crisis.  By 1967 UCONN admitted it was unable to house all undergraduates on campus (see 1967 University Bulletin, p. 70). This was a serious problem since the university had long committed itself to housing incoming students on campus. Unfortunately, lacking a Master Plan for development in the 1960s, UCONN fell far behind in building student dormitories which gradually led to the development of a vast network of absentee landlords who saw a business opportunity of buying up single family homes and renting them to students.  

UCONN's inability or incapacity to meets it's student housing needs shifted this burden to rural Mansfield which has a limited rental housing stock.  The single family homes initially most affected were those nearest to the university campus, but gradually over time, the growth of rental conversions has spread like an infection into all parts of Mansfield. In response to this crisis, in 2006 Mansfield initiated a permit program to regulate landlords renting single family dwelling units. This action came in response to widespread citizen complaints concerning the overwhelming nuisances attributable to unsupervised students living in residential neighborhoods. As can be seen by the chronology below, Mansfield's residents continue to be annoyed and outraged by the never ending parties and raucous events held throughout the town’s residential neighborhoods during the school year. 

UCONN dormitory undergoing repair work in June 2017

The ever increasing student enrollment has far exceeded student dormitory capacities virtually every year since the 1960s yet UCONN has only sporadically considered the impacts of its off campus student housing policy on the housing stock of Mansfield and surrounding towns. Today, over 400 single family residences in Mansfield have been converted into student housing.  Many of these are in neighborhoods that were formerly the residences of UCONN professors and staff who retired or felt compelled to move elsewhere due to the change in neighborhood quality. As old neighborhoods have deteriorated from deferred building maintenance, unsupervised student living and loud parties, many of the remaining town residents are now seeking ways to sell their properties while they still hold some market value.

Others, who still consider Mansfield their home, are fighting UCONN in the hope of reversing these trends.  Out of desperation, Bill Roe and Becki Shafer started the Mansfield Neighborhood Preservation Group (MNPG) in 2015 to reverse some of the most egregious activities of off-campus student living.  Hundreds of residents have joined MNPG and their efforts have been noticed by Mansfield's Town Council and UCONN officials who are now somewhat surprised that they may have stepped on the cat's tail.

Irresponsible Environmental Decision Making: Chemical Pits near Residential Neighborhoods 

Similar to the university's housing problems, the traffic, noise and chemical pollution caused by the university cannot be confined within the boundaries of the university's campus.   To understand this problem it is first important to recognize the legislative authorities granted to UCONN. In reality, UCONN functions like a small city with all of the governmental functions typically associated with a city but WITHOUT any of the checks and balances afforded to residents of all the 169 towns in Connecticut who elect their local government officials.  

UCONN has its own police force, wastewater treatment plant, public drinking water system, university road system, bonding authority and the power to collect fees and revenues for services rendered. It has complete responsibility for the health, safety and general welfare for nearly 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students who either live, work or study on campus. In contrast, Mansfield relies on UCONN's wastewater treatment plant and public water supply to meet its own needs and that of its much smaller population estimated to be about 13,600 residents - exclusive of students.

How has this unfortunate imbalance come to pass? As a state agency UCONN's leadership reports directly to its Board of Trustees which in turn is accountable only to the Governor and the State Legislature. Its powers are like those of any other state agency. For example UCONN is only subject to state environmental laws - not those of Mansfield despite its location within the town as well as its impact upon the town.

Interceptor pipe Installed at UCONN Chemical Pit - Now covered by Parking Lot C

In the case of the massive groundwater pollution created by UCONN''s chemical pits located off Hunting Lodge Road, nothing happened until several outraged citizens demonstrated the toxic characteristics of their drinking water and got the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to take action. Yet even with regulatory oversight, UCONN took nearly 25 years to take appropriate action to remediate the chemical pollution and DEP acted more like an absentee regulator than an agency with a vital mission of protecting vital groundwater resources. UCONN spent years foot dragging on issues that should have been an opportunity for it to demonstrate environmental leadership. 

Despite its reputation as the crown jewel in the state's university system, it dilly dallyed with studies while nearby residents urged action and less talk.  Eventually, UCONN contracted for the remediation of the chemical pits some 40 years after the first barrels had been buried yet even this important work did not eliminate the lingering chemicals that continue to slowly migrate along Hunting Lodge Road. While UCONN has maintained a quarterly monitoring of groundwater contamination it has recently returned to its cloak and dagger ways by stopping the publication of its quarterly monitoring reports on its public website.Who is holding UCONN accountable? More importantly, are any of Mansfield's officials concerned enough to monitor the threat these buried chemicals pose to public and private drinking water supplies?

Massive Water Withdrawals & UCONN Takes Liberties Outside its Watershed

In the early 20th century the Connecticut Agricultural College (the predecessor name of the University of Connecticut) faced a water crisis and the state legislature bailed the college out by giving it condemnation authority to take water from the Cedar Swamp Brook immediately to the west of the Storrs Campus.  Eventually, the University of Connecticut would rely on the Fenton and Willimantic Rivers to meet the drinking water requirements of its students, faculty and staff. Water requirements for UCONN are exceedingly large and fractured bedrock wells have never been sufficient to meet its needs without direct access to the stratified drift aquifers underlying the Fenton and Willimantic Rivers. 

The Fenton River runs dry in 2005 from UCONN's excessive water withdrawals

Access to water is a critical element of any survival strategy and in the case of UCONN this became exceedingly clear in September 2005 when drought conditions, coupled with highly wasteful water consumption practices and a lack of wellhead monitoring drained the Fenton River dry - killing thousands of fish.  The immediate drinking water crisis was resolved by reducing groundwater withdrawals and implementing university-wide water conservation measures.  However, lacking a sustainability vision, by 2013 the university had defiantly increased enrollment at its Storrs campus by more than 2,000 students compared to 2005 - the year the Fenton River went dry.  Rather than living within the limits of its God given water supply, the university chose to take water from another watershed immediately to the north - the Shenipsit Reservoir in Tolland.   Hundreds of Connecticut residents objected to this “water taking” but UCONN prevailed because of its political connections with the Governor and state legislature.

Much like a cancer that grows from an increased blood supply and ripe metabolic conditions, UCONN leveraged its legislative and executive connections and powers to dramatically expand its water resources - more than doubling its water capacity by linking to the Shenipsit Reservoir.  The not so unintended consequence of this state sanctioned water diversion permit, coupled with the recently approved sewer line extension from UCONN to Four Corners (2017), will be to enable a rapid expansion of business and multi-family housing opportunities at what has been called the "Gateway" to Mansfield.  For those who welcome growth, these series of events signal the "promised land". For those concerned about the rapid transformation of Mansfield into an urban world, these developments have become a rallying cry for responsible land use planning.

Mansfield as a Company Town

Despite the unceasing series of environmental and housing catastrophes that have emerged over the last fifty years, the chronology below clearly indicates that only limited progress has been made in controlling UCONN's irresponsible activities within the town of Mansfield.  Part of this reflects the divided loyalties of some Mansfield residents who work at the university by day and are town council members by night.  Caught between these two loyalties, the University's agenda has generally taken precedence over that of Mansfield.  What are some possible solutions to these divided loyalties and to the unchecked powers of the university?Those issues will be the subject of a separate blog posting to be issued in the near future.

Each Connecticut resident pays taxes to support UCONN so each of us is responsible for understanding the university's misuse of power and funds.  With this understanding, citizens can collectively suggest corrective actions to the state legislature.

Step 1:  Read the Chronology (see below)

Step 2:  Recommend legislative and strategic solutions 

Chronology of UCONN's Housing and Environmental Issues & Their Impact on Mansfield  

January 11, 1965
Homer Babbidge, President of UCONN places a 5 year moratorium on new fraternities at the UCONN campus

September 1967 
UCONN acknowledges for the first time that the vast majority of undergraduate live on campus - implying that over-crowded dormitories have pushed many undergraduate students into rental housing off-campus.

September 1968
UCONN allows seniors, 21 years of age, to live off-Campus after receiving permission from Dean of Students

October 19, 1969
Dr. Babbidge suggests optional off-campus living privileges for UCONN upperclassmen 

November 20, 1969
UCONN establishes new fraternity rules that force fraternities to move off campus 

April 5, 1972
Mansfield Zoning Board of Appeals allows a fraternity on Route 195. 

June 4, 1987
Hartford Courant reports fraternity membership nearly tripled in eight years triggering need for frat housing. 

November 12, 1987
Overcrowding on campus spurs UCONN to drop concept of guaranteed on campus housing. 

June 7, 1995
Public Act 95-230 authorizes UCONN to control its own building program & build despite zoning 

October 17, 1997
UCONN Board of Trustees approve long range plan to transform the Strorrs campus by closing roads, banning autos and converting the heart of the campus to a pedestrian mall 

November 26, 1997
Governor Rowland rejects UCONN's $107million stadium on the Storrs Campus

June 3, 1998
Mansfield residents' group asks federal government to investigate chemical contamination from UCONN's abandoned dump

June 7, 1998
Hartford Courant reports UCONN spent decades foot dragging on chemical pit remediation. 

July 28, 1998
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refuses to take control of UCONN's chemical pit remediation from the CT Dept. of Environmental Protection

December 14, 1998
Mansfield Town Council votes 7-2 to support Pfizer/UCONN alliance without mentioning its location

March 26, 1999
UCONN proposes to locate a 90,000 square foot Pfizer animal vaccine research center on Horse Barn Hill triggering strong opposition 

April 12, 1999
Mansfield Town Council reverses itself and opposes Pfizer construction on a 5-4 vote

August 8, 1999
New York Times reports that Pfizer abandons animal vaccine research center after litigation threats. 

June 12, 2000
Mansfield Town Council authorizes outside study of Town's present and future water needs and supplies

March 17, 2002
Hartford Courant calls UCONN a “Big Bad Neighbor” riding rough shod over Mansfield 

April 14, 2002
Hartford Courant reports on newly constructed campus fraternity dormitories that will house 300 students by fall of 2003. 

January 30, 2003
Hartford Courant reports UCONN Chemical Pit can never be cleaned up through soil removal due to contamination of the bedrock aquifer 

July 26, 2004
Mansfield Committee on Community Quality of Life convenes its first meeting 

September 16, 2005
UCONN sucks the Fenton River dry killing thousands of Fish 

October 18, 2005
Office of Legislative Research releases report on UCONN 2000 Commission and need for legislation to control UCONN 

April 28, 2006
House passes construction oversight bill for UCONN 

June 8, 2006
UCONN reports start of chemical pit remediation near Hunting Lodge Road after years of delay 

September 2007
UCONN begins 10 year expansion trend with nearly 20% increase in enrollment  over the period 2007-2016

September 21, 2007
UCONN begins 10 year tuition trend with out of state tuition increasing by 52% over the period 2007-2016

March 7, 2006
UCONN Professors Recommend Reduced Withdrawals from Fenton River wells

September 21, 2006
Mansfield Requires Rental Permits for Landlords 

August 2, 2010
Mansfield Adopts Parking Rules for Residential Rental Properties 

August 15, 2010
Mansfield Changes 4-unrelated to 3-unrelated in its definition of family 

July 1, 2011
UCONN Office of Community Standards begins tracking student misconduct 

July 7, 2011
Mansfield Adopts Neighborhood Nuisance Ordinance 

July 30, 2013
UCONN Approved to Take Water from Shenipsit Lake 

June 17, 2014
UCONN releases Record of Decision to build a 750 bed STEM dormitory for science, technology and engineering students

September 25, 2014
Jonathan Pelto exposes UCONN’s waste, fraud and abuse with $6 Billion in debt & nothing to show  

November 4, 2014
UCONN buses students to vote in Mansfield and provides deciding votes on $9M Sewer referendum 

November 7, 2014
Mansfield Rental Certification Zone Expanded Town-wide 

May 2015
UCONN Campus Master Plan Proposes 460,000 square feet of new construction 

October 13, 2015
Mansfield Neighborhood Preservation Group Founded 

March 14, 2016
Mansfield Neighborhood Preservation Group urges town council to move all fraternities back on campus 

March 18, 2016
Mansfield Neighborhood Preservation Group Contends students over-populating town 

April 1, 2016
UCONN declares the 650 bed South Campus Honors dormitory will not be built since a private sector solution seems viable (see Record of Decision, p. ES-2)


April 5, 2016
Mansfield Neighborhood Preservation Group issues Off Campus Housing Impact Study 

May 9, 2016
UCONN sets new high record with 34,978 freshman applications 

August 3, 2016
UCONN approved to tear down South Campus Brown Houses 

June 30, 2016
UCONN’s long term debt increases to $1.6 Billion 

July 19, 2016
Mansfield Neighborhood Preservation Group claims 55% of town population is students 

August 25, 2016
UCONN opens a new dormitory resulting in first small increase in dormitory beds in 13 years 

September 21, 2016
Mansfield Approves 9 month moratorium on New Multi-Family Housing 

September 27, 2016
State officials let UCONN 2000 oversight panel languish for years 

October 31, 2016
UCONN forecasts declining state financial support but continues building  

December 23, 2016
Mansfield Environmental Trust, Inc. recognized by IRS as a 501(c)3 organization

January 30, 2017
UCONN Increases Price of On-Campus Housing 

February 7, 2017
UCONN Office of Institutional Research data shows shows a 31% increase in out of state students over the period 2006 to 2015

February 9, 2017
Yankee Institute points to Governor’s Malloy’s $3.6 billion budget deficit as mismanagement  

April 20, 2017
UCONN Grows and More Students Move Off Campus - Neighborhood Tension Increases 

March 21, 2017
UCONN expels Kappa Sigma Fraternity after student death 

May 1, 2017
Mansfield extends multi-family housing moratorium until December 2017 

June 2, 2017
UCONN Discloses “No Increase in On Campus Dormitories in 10 years” - despite an 18% increase in undergraduate student enrollment between 2007 and 2016

June 28, 2017
The Connecticut Mirror reports UCONN's dormitory expansion plans are on hold due to the state budgetary crisis


Research Methods:
Details on the sources and methods used in this research can be found by clicking on Notes on the Research Supporting this Blog.