[1] The first college in the United States founded on the principle that all qualified students were welcome,[2] it was sponsored by the American Baptist Free Mission Society, of which Grosvenor was a vice-president.

"[7] : 42  Hamilton had a reputation for not opposing slavery; Gerrit Smith resigned from their Board of Trustees "on the grounds that the school was insufficiently anti-slavery".

[11] The President and five professors, with the support of "citizens of Oneida County", informed the legislature than an outsider (a legislator) had misled the students, who "disclaim all sympathy with abolition societies".

The anti-slavery petition was unauthorized by the faculty, and "at variance with the principles of the college government, and with the judgment and feeling of every officer of the institution".

[1] Speaking at the laying of the cornerstone, Grosvenor "vindicated the character of Women, repelled the idea of her inferiority to man, and maintained the necessity of giving to our daughters an education equal to that given to our sons.

Let the sacramental host be led on to victory, and the portals of the scientific arcana, be opened and lit up by the blazing genius of sturdy clowns in homespun, with master intellects, and daring spirits, rather than be offered by Knights of the reticule; valorous in their onset upon cologne bottles; and prodigies of prowess among spices of Rosemary..... this MODEL COLLEGE, based on the republican rock of changeless truth, and canopied by the star-jeweled firmament of philosophy, which is in truth, designed to rebuke the withering spirit of caste, and make all forms of useful industry respectable, and furnish community with practical men and women.With emotions of irresistible joy, I hail the dawning of the day in which, by the influence of the system of CENTRAL COLLEGE all aristocratic distinctions in societry, created by wealth, sect, party or learning, shall be brought down to a REPUBLICAN LEVEL.

Black professor Charles L. Reason delivered an inaugural address, on the topic "Harmony of the Principles of the College with Man's True Destiny and the Tendencies of the Present Age."

Dr. Bush on his left, and on his right President Grosvenor, ourself, still flanked by [A. H.] Benedict of the [Cortland County] Express, his mouth watering for the baked beans and Graham bread.

Professor Reason is a mulatto, we believe—a noble looking man, urbane and polished in his manners, and his countenance the undisguised index of goodness and truth.

[30] This is how the college was described by an alumna and instructor, Angeline Stickney: [T]he world will frown upon me, because I am a student of this unpopular institution, and I expect to get the name that I have heard applied to all who come here, "fanatic".

I love the spirit that welcomes all to its halls, those of every tongue, and of every hue, which admits of "no rights exclusive", which holds out the cup of knowledge in its crystal brightness for all to quaff; and if this is fanaticism, I will glory in the name "fanatic."

And I am glad I am here because there are none here to say, "thus far thou mayst ascend the hill of Science and no farther," when I have just learned how sweet are the fruits of knowledge, and when I can see them hanging in such rich clusters, far up the heights, looking so bright and golden, as if they were inviting me to partake.

And all the while I can see my brother gathering those golden fruits, and I mark how his eye brightens.... No, there are none here to whisper, "that is beyond thy sphere, thou couldst never scale those dizzy heights"; but, on the contrary, here are kind voices cheering me onward.

There was no "mission statement", no academic ranks, no specific degree requirements (that would have been difficult to maintain with an ever-changing, variably qualified faculty).

The American Baptist Free Mission Society gave what support it could, especially at the beginning, but it was a small group with limited resources.

There were three very well qualified African-American professors, who successively occupied the same position: Charles L. Reason (1849-1852), William G. Allen (1852–1853), and George Boyer Vashon (1853–1859).

I, part 1, [p. 7]  As no records were kept of it, the skin color ("race") of the students is not known; however, there were relatively few Blacks: Baquaqua, Edmonia Lewis, Benjamin Boseman, others.

[1] In a newspaper advertisement we find that the Manual Labor Department was "under the supervision of Luther Wellington, a Practical Farmer, a kind and benevolent man, on a farm of 187 acres (76 ha)."

[48] In 1850 the trustees and then the students of the college published resolutions they had passed in support of William L. Chaplin, in jail for helping two slaves escape.

The moral atmosphere of a city is not congenial to the habits of students, nor the growth of an institution founded on the manusl labor principle, and on equality of sex and condition, as is this college.

— A glorious idea this, as, if it should be successful, it will afford an opening for study to the very many colored young men who are now, by prejudice and scorn, shut out of most, if not all, of the medical colleges in the land.

[15] Boys and men were in the dormitory occupying one floor of the main building; girls (no adult female students are recorded) were in a separate residence, with a matron.

"It would be bad enough, in our estimation, to bring together girls and boys, young men and women, of the same race and color, under the same roof, in the same halls, and at the same table.

[67] A New York legislator said that rather than giving a state appropriation to that "vile sink of pollution", it would be better given to "a mob that will raze it to the ground", because it "was at war with every principle of American liberty".

[68] The New York Tribune called it a "treasonable college", an "obnoxious edifice" where, "if things are suffered to go on at this rate, this whole region will become infected with Abolitionism; the contagion of Free Speech will spread til the Fugitive Slave law will become a nullity and the Union will collapse!

Seizing his gun, and taking Immediate transportation in the most available vehicle, the irate parent pursued the bi-colored couple with all the impetuosity of Pharoah chasing the flying Israelites down into the Red Sea.

And then the "New York Central College" for the education of negro youths experienced the sad fate of Pharoah at the hiatus of the purple waters.

[75]: 14 President Calkins left for a position at "an eminent law school in Albany"; the trustees persuaded Grosvenor to take up the leadership again.

"[78] A modern scholar has suggested that Smith's breakdown and hospitalization after public discovery of his connection with John Brown's failed raid on Harpers Ferry, of late 1859, contributed to the college's closure.

The effects of the outbreak, coupled with the lingering social and political opposition and financial difficulties, caused the college to close that same year.