"Massachusetts is already heading in the wrong direction," said Bok, warning that private institutions could not afford to stand idly by watch their public counterparts be crippled.

Other private university leaders expressed deep misgivings about the tax rollback plan. "We're certainly tuition-driven," said Boston College Vice President Margaret A. Dwyer, who was fearful that the college could lose many potential students if the state shut off the scholarship tap.

"[With] the loss of state aid...it would be an enormous loss to a number of students to have a chance to an attend an independent institution," said Dwyer. "The effects are going to be far ranging."

And even Carr acknowledges that some students may be concerned about the referendum's effects, although he stresses that many are misguided.

And regardless of the motives, the campaign has been going strong. Instead of confining their protests to the campus bounds, anti-CLT activists have even taken their movement to the streets, hoping to engender opposition to the plan in local communities.

Angus G. McQuilken, a member of the UMass/Amherst student government has spent much of his time working at "Vote No on 3" headquarters in Amherst, and has even debated CLT spokesperson Paul Nicolai head-to-head in Springfield.

"We've been focusing on our region," McQuilken explained. "We're trying to come at it from a sophisticated political [perspective]."