Middlebury vs Middlebury

Upon checking into a quaint inn in Middlebury, Vermont, the man behind the front desk looked me up and down and immediately said, "Here's a pamphlet on the College, enjoy your stay" in a cold, rehearsed voice.  I hadn't mentioned a thing to him about the college.  It was as if he was disdainful about how the only reason he thought I would ever consider setting foot in his small town would be to visit the local college; which was actually exactly why I was there.

Later that night at the conclusion of dinner at the inn, the extremely welcoming and kind waitress told us that she hoped we would enjoy seeing Middlebury College tomorrow in almost an identical tone as the man behind the front desk.  Again, we made no mention of Middlebury to her whatsoever.  At this point I knew there had to be something more between the people of Middlebury and the students at Middlebury College.

As soon as a began to look into the topic, I came across a documentary made by local students at the high school about this exact relationship.  The tone of the video is set immediately by a high schooler saying that if he was in a car driving through the campus, he would hit the next Middlebury College student that crossed the street without looking.

One of the issues between the students of Middlebury College and the residents of Middlebury, VT is that there is an enormous financial gap between them.  In terms of the college itself and the town itself, a few examples were given in the video of major town projects having to be majorly funded by the college because the college has more many the town itself.  This is not different on the person to person level either.  In Middlebury, the median household income is $48,487, while the total annual cost for one student to go to Middlebury College is just under $60,000.  This immense financial gap seems to create a lot of tension and resentment from the less wealthy people of Middlebury to the more wealthy students at the college.  In my brief experience, the students at the college have almost the opposite feelings about the residents of the town.  One student described the people of the town as "sweethearts" and said that "The people here make it the most wholesome and friendly place I've ever been."

I think this relationship is particularly interesting because I see it as a sort of microcosm of the larger financial gap throughout the United States.  The large gap between the middle class and the "1%" is a continuous struggle in this country that has not seen any progress in being resolved.

I believe that the best solution in both the smaller case of Middlebury as well as the larger case of the United States is that the people need to settle there differences and work to get along.  There isn't a whole lot either side can do to help decrease the financial gap, but I don't think that's what necessarily needs to happen anyways.  People should be able to get along despite financial or any other differences.  The town of Middlebury offers as much to the college in certain ways as the college does to the town in other ways.  Even though the issue of financial differences isn't going away any time soon, hopefully the attitudes of the town of Middlebury and Middlebury College as well as the attitudes of the middle class and "1%" does change soon.

Do you think the feelings of resentment are justified?  What would you do to solve the problem?