The Mansfield Town Council questioned a University of Connecticut representative on the local consequences of increasing enrollment at the Storrs campus during a town council meeting on Monday.
Vice President for Student Life and Enrollment Nathan Fuerst was met with skepticism by the council after going through the strategic enrollment management plan for 2025. Deputy Mayor Ben Shaiken said that plans to continue increasing undergraduate enrollment would challenge the town’s ability to provide for all its residents.
“My chief concern seeing the enrollment growth is not that you shouldn’t have the enrollment growth. It’s that it needs to take into account the rest of the growth and the town’s desire to create spaces for people of all ages,” Shaiken said, elaborating on the issue of new housing developments in Mansfield almost exclusively going to undergraduate students.
Mansfield has focused on the balance for developments to include both undergraduates and other Mansfield residents for the past 20 years, according to the town council.
“That very much includes the housing development at the Four Corners,” Shaiken said. “Our planning and zoning commission made sure that the physical space there would be able to accommodate both families and students… but it seems the university’s plan is to fully occupy that housing.”
The Mark Mansfield was one off-campus housing development that was brought up in the meeting as a reference point for enrollment.
“We’re currently assuming that for fall of ‘27 that The Mark will be completed… but if that is not completed on time it would cause us to go back [on class enrollment size],” said Fuerst.
Landmark Properties bought a 1.56-acre site at 134 North Eagleville Road to house off-campus students with a 738-bed development, according to the Hartford Courant.
Beyond the contention of how increasing enrollment would impact housing was the current status of traffic around Mansfield. Brian Coleman, a member of the town council, said he’s been receiving a lot of complaints about driving in Mansfield recently.
“Right now, I will say that the number one complaint about the university and what’s going on right now is the traffic,” Coleman said. “It’s gridlock everywhere you go.”
His proposal during the meeting was to not allow freshmen and sophomores to park on campus. Resident students already need over 54 credits to purchase a parking permit, according to the parking services website.
One other piece of the traffic which is important to understand, is that it’s not just students and staff and faculty. Some of them are visitors to campus…last year we had 120,000 visitors to campus just to take a tour.
Nathan Fuerst, Vice President for Student Life and Enrollment
Another topic of note at the meeting was an update on construction for the pedestrian safety improvements at South Eagleville Road. Mansfield Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth said that concerns on social media about the width of the road don’t account for the project still being in its construction phase.
Recent attendance in town council meetings have made profound impacts on Mansfield, said Moran. An example of this is Monday’s vote to approve a revised contract with Renew Active, an insurance-based fitness program providing access to the Mansfield Community Center, according to Mayor Antonia Moran.
“We need to give some real thanks to the members of the community who came out and told us how important these programs were to them,” Moran said.
Renew Active was only one part of the Medicare Advantage fitness program that Mansfield announced it was closing in a July email. SilverSneakers was the other program discontinued at the Mansfield Community Center, with Shaiken saying that contract was still under negotiation.
The next Mansfield Town Council meeting is scheduled for Oct. 14 and should include updates on the SilverSneakers renegotiated contract, according to Shaiken.
The obvious issue over this is Mansfield has no public water or sewer. That limits development off of UConn. Ok make a compromise here folks. Instead of a PILOT have UConn pay for a water and sewer system for the rest of Mansfield. Heck add in municipal wifi and maybe add in tv service. Yes it would take years but that would pretty much make it much easier for other developments to happen on the town side rather than at UConn. If UConn uses up town facilities then pay for it. If someone was going to make a private market rate apartment complex in town why would they choose to do it away from water and sewer? The cost of a well and septic tank would add tens of thousands of dollars easily.