Well, for one, UVM is not a private university. That said, I'm also not sure of any way that Burlington or the state of Vermont could force them to provide housing for all students...has such a thing been done for any college or university, anywhere?
One minor correction, while Lovecraft himself was from Rhode Island most of his works are set around Massachusetts (although "The Whisperer in Darkness" actually takes place outside Townshend, Vermont!).
edit to add:
Relevant quote on the topic though from Lovecraft himself:
> the true epicure of the terrible, to whom a new thrill of unutterable ghastliness is the chief end and justification of existence, esteem most of all the ancient, lonely farmhouses of backwoods New England; for there the dark elements of strength, solitude, grotesqueness, and ignorance combine to form the perfection of the hideous.
pyl_time t1_jdoso5k wrote
Reply to comment by dyslexda in New Mars globe at the MOS. by jugglefire
It’s like Carl Sagan said - to rebuild an elevator from scratch, you must first invent the universe.