The situation during the winter semester of 1806-07 under the presidency of Samuel Stanhope Smith was characterized by little or no faculty-student rapport or communication, crowded conditions, and strict school rules - a combination that led to a student riot on 31 March-1 April 1807.
Princeton University's position on pre-Civil War disputes over slavery and abolitionism to fall mainly on the conservative side, not so much favoring slavery as opposing radical antislavery.