I fully expect that more that 7% of Mansfield Residents are behind UConn because they understand that if UConn thrives, Mansfield thrives. All they have to do is look down the hill at Willimantic for an Eastern CT that refuses to accept reality. Its just the <25% loud who think somehow that the last 30 years of development at UConn is going to be unwound and they can all go back tot he sleepy, suitcase, regional university with less than 10K students on campus. My own peeve against Mansfield is from my time there getting harassed by Mansfield PD every weekend and the fact that the town collected all parking ticket violations at the time (still true today?) and it was nearly an impossible process for as student to appeal and win (they loved telling folks in the Spring that they were booked and then only offered appeal times in June & July when, of course, everyone was home).
Mansfield is not the only one where University growth causes an uproar. BC has am mess on it's hands trying to develop the old Archdiocese land they bought across the street from the main campus a couple of years back. Locals complain that the and can't be developed because they want it open to walk their dogs, picnic, etc., even though it was private land before and they were technically trespassing. The best is when locals in Brighton and Newton complain that students living off-campus are taking over their neighborhoods and causing rents to rise. So, when BC announces plans to build more dorms on-campus, the other the same people complain that landlords are not going to be able to make a living after all of the students move back on campus.