I grew up just outside of campus (my family sold a big portion of our land to the college decades ago). It is its own little bubble. Rarely do you see college kids walking around town other than to get coffee at powers market. Students who were in the know would take the shortcut through our yard on their way into town. But I can’t really say anything bad about the college or the people that attend.

That being said the town of N. Benn has changed a bit since the college stopped housing facility and staff on campus. It would normally be ok but these profs and staff who ended up buying homes in town have started to show up to town meetings and started to make their opinions know about how the town should be ran. Long story short the town is on verge of becoming a Williamstown, MA like town where people who grew up there and may not have high paying jobs can’t afford to buy. My sister looked at a small house before Covid and was shocked to find out it went for more than 500k and needed to be completely gutted and redone.

The same thing is happening across vermont but it’s sad to see it happen to the town of less than 1,200 people that I grew up in….

Sad….