What happens when a college town loses its college?

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New England isn’t New England without its colleges.

Of course, there are the big players: Harvard, Brown, UMass Amherst. But the region is also home to dozens of small (and pricey!) private universities that make our six states the place to get a liberal arts education. Another bonus? Those schools power the towns where they are.

Take Poultney, Vermont. I drove up there in February to see how the closure of Green Mountain College had affected its 3,000 residents and the mom-and-pop shops on Main Street, almost six years after the fact. What I found was crippling uncertainty about the small-town economy and skepticism about the college’s new owner, an eccentric millionaire who is storing spirits on campus and inviting tourists into the Green Mountain gym for ice baths.

Here’s why that matters.

As many as 80 colleges could close across the country in the next five years. Some say they’re disappearing at a rate of one per week. Many towns have been decimated by schools that have gone dark, leaving them without the influx of students and staff whose spending significantly boosts the local economy, as well as younger residents who often pursue jobs and buy homes there after graduation. After a closure, Nathan Grawe of Carleton College told me, “the town has to struggle to find a new economic identity.” Or wither away.

Rural areas of New England, where most colleges are, are shrinking and populated mostly by senior citizens. When the 70-something owner of the hunting goods store in Poultney decides it’s time to retire, it’s a question of who will take it over — if anyone at all.

Green Mountain sat empty for a year before Raj Bhakta swooped in to buy it. Locals call him a “character,” to put it kindly. A former “Apprentice” contestant and Pennsylvania congressional candidate, Bhakta can often be found smoking a cigar. He’s the sort of freewheeling capitalist who makes big promises and believes profit equals progress. In an interview, he told me that his Hogsworth whiskey, made in Vermont, “is going to be bigger than Jack Daniels.”

But Bhakta is doing what he promised. He spends millions heating campus buildings each year as he slowly pushes along a state application for a $100 million redevelopment. His wife is teaching kids everything from astronomy to martial arts at an independent elementary school she opened on the Green Mountain property.

All that said, that amount of buzz on campus is a blessing. Not every college has so much activity. Other shuttered New England schools have become satellite campuses for nearby universities, training centers for waste water treatment firms, or just abandoned properties. A Chinese investor bought Daniel Webster College in Nashua in 2017, thinking it was operational. Now, the campus sits vacant and overgrown, labeled by town officials as “the most frustrating development site in the city.”

What Bhakta brings to Poultney is flash: his collection of vintage cars, his bust of Julius Caesar, and his ardent belief in the exclusive French brandy his company is selling, marketed as one of the oldest spirits available.

Locals say that’s great, if he delivers.

At least one restaurateur is expanding her empire into Poultney because of her faith in Bhakta. But most of the town is not placing bets on the whims of the wealthy. Poultney native Martin Van Buren Jr. said Bhakta moves through town like he’s running a “political campaign” and that he may not stick around long-term.

So as the Green Mountain redevelopment moves forward, Poultney plans to expand its outdoor economy. Think hiking trails (unexpectedly funded by Wayfair cofounder Steve Conine), bike shops, and maybe even a new “outdoor recreation hub” in town. It’ll be essential to replace the sizable chunk of jobs that served the education economy that Poultney lost after the college closure.

Deborah Diamond, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, said other former college towns should be doing the same.

“Change is on the horizon,” she added, “not just for these institutions themselves, but for the places where they live.”

Note: To learn more about Green Mountain College and Poultney, read my complete story here.

🧩 5 Down: Very keen | 🌊 44º Sea breeze-cooled

Boston and New England

• $78.1 billion: Health care spending in Massachusetts soared nearly 9 percent in 2023, fueled by prescription drug spending. A state agency warns it’s unsustainable.
• ‘Have you no decency?’ When a House Republican misgendered Representative Sarah McBride, a Delaware Democrat, Bill Keating of Cape Cod confronted him.
• Bookmark this: The Boston Public Library will use artificial intelligence to upload books, maps, newspapers, and more, expanding its digital collection.
• Double jeopardy: An undocumented Portuguese man in Rhode Island faces deportation for a second time. He re-entered the US and was arrested last year for drug trafficking and reckless driving.
• Well this sucks: iRobot, the Bedford-based maker of the Roomba, hit its lowest stock price ever thanks to slumping sales, failed new products, and an aborted takeover attempt by Amazon.

Trump administration

• Dial tone: The Social Security Administration, pressured by Elon Musk, was considering cutting phone services that retired and disabled Americans use to access their benefits. After it got reported, the agency backtracked. (WashPost)
• Green to black: Trump’s EPA administrator moved to roll back landmark climate rules on coal-fired power plants and electric vehicles. (AP) He’s also trying to cancel $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants. (Politico)
• Mahmoud Khalil: The green card holder ICE detained over pro-Gaza protests at Columbia hasn’t been allowed to speak privately with his lawyers, the lawyers told a judge. (NYT)
• ‘Devastating’: The Department of Agriculture cut more than $1 billion in funding for food banks, child care, and schools to purchase locally grown food. In New England, the cuts will hurt farmers, anglers, and schoolchildren.
• Another suit: Two Harvard doctors sued the administration for deleting their research from a government website over references to LGBTQ+ people.
• Collateral damage: The Department of Education closed a regional office in Boston and laid off employees there, part of a broader culling that has halved the department’s workforce. And the federal website for student loans and financial aid was down for hours yesterday. (AP)
• Safe haven: Boston is a “sanctuary city” for the LGBTQ+ community, the city council declared, amid Trump’s attacks on transgender people.
• Unfit to print: Ruth Marcus, a 40-year Washington Post veteran, quit after the paper spiked her column about Jeff Bezos’s editorial changes and overtures to Trump. Read the column here. (New Yorker)
• Shuffle diplomacy: Vice President JD Vance showed off his shamrock socks during a meeting with Ireland’s prime minister. (Irish Times)
• Car wars: Musk’s alliance with Trump has liberal Tesla owners putting exculpatory bumper stickers on their cars — or trying to sell them.

The Nation

• Funding fight: Senate Democrats say there aren’t enough votes to advance a House-passed GOP bill that would fund the government. Without more money, it will shut down Friday. (Axios)
• #MeToo case: Harvey Weinstein appeared in court ahead of his retrial next month on charges of sexual assault. New York’s highest court threw out his previous conviction last year. (AP)

🎭 More in heaven and earth: A comedic prequel to “Hamlet,” playing at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, echoes its writers’ own lives.

🎨 Out of frame: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum restored a frame that once held a Rembrandt, stolen 35 years ago.

👨‍🌾 Play in the dirt: How to clean up winter debris, cut back last year’s stems, and get ready for spring gardening.

🦃 For the birds: Brookline police warned residents to watch out for aggressive wild turkeys as mating season begins.

❤️ Love Letters: Is a relationship worth giving up traveling?

💫 Out of this world: Two Brown University scholars helped identify a meteorite that smashed through an SUV window and landed in a container of ice cream.

🔌 Unplug: Set limits, delete apps, and other advice for spending less time on social media. (NYT)

🍀 St. Patrick’s Day: Try these new Irish pubs and go see some Celtic music.

🏠 Home of the week: This antique house in coastal Winthrop is perfect if you’re looking to downsize.

Thanks for reading Starting Point. Today’s edition was edited by Teresa Hanafin and produced by Bill Geshwender and Ian Prasad Philbrick.

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Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_.