Appearance
The University will be a pentagram, with five towers surrounding a central complex. The five towers will stand nearly 200 feet high and have a diameter of 100 feet. They are being built of native stone, and with certain defensive magical mortars to ward away baneful spell effects. The central complex, will be a pentagon with corners connecting to each of the towers, filling an area roughly three hundred feet across and fifty feet high. The structure, as currently designed, will cost far more than the 250,000 gp the Knights donated in seed money, and so is being constructed very slowly as the University seeks further funding.
Until such time as its complex is complete, the University actually occupies a scattered amalgam of buildings throughout Brightview, including the private homes of certain faculty members and several converted warehouses. Many of these buildings are intended to serve the University for some time, as the University complex towers will be used primarily as library and research space. While the central pentagon will contain meeting chambers, theatres, and classrooms for instruction, as well as offices for administrative staff, the faculty expects to continue to use their homes and the hodge-podge of other adjacent and nearby buildings until the University has the funds to construct official outbuildings.
Organization
The University is modeled after many similar institutions which thrive in Greatspace. Its staff is comprised of both formal full-time faculty, and adjunct faculty who are primarily practitioners which work and live in Brightview and nearby communities on New Thesalys. Five Colleges make up the University (with each college slated to occupy one of the primary towers of the University complex).
Each college is meant to bring under its aegis a significant aggregate of similar scholastic interests. The College of Engineering includes architects, shipwrights, artisans, blacksmiths, and other craft occupations. This college is concerned with the study and enhancement of the skills of construction, craft and design in all their forms.
The College of Philosophy seeks to understand the underpinnings of the multiverse. This college welcomes anyone who wishes to explore not any particular skill itself, but the whys, and wherefores of said skill. The members of this college hope to understand the multiverse through the understanding of its individual components. In addition to pure philosophers, the college therefore hosts many philosophically minded mages, psionicists, and artists, as well as any other inquisitive soul. Due to its esoteric nature, the College of Philosophy is the smallest of the Five Colleges.
The College of Alchemy consists primarily of alchemists, though it also includes transmuters, geologists, smiths, and others, among its membership. Anyone concerned with the basic building blocks of the multiverse, and how they can be better manipulated and combined to further the art of creation, is welcome at the College of Alchemy.
The College of Law and Administration trains judges, barristers, and civil servants, but also offers training to investigators, merchants, and administrators of all sorts.
The College of Lore hosts the broadest selection of members, including physicians, astronomers, historians, botanists, and other students of the sciences.
The full-time faculty of each college democratically make all internal decisions for that college, including the hiring of new faculty, the granting of tenure, and the expenditure of college funds. Each college must also elect a Chairperson from among its full-time faculty. These five Chairs are the chief administrators of their college. In addition, the University's Board of Directors is made up of the Chairs of the Five Colleges, a member of the Seedspace Council, and a representative of the Citizen Knights. The Board makes standard University policy decisions and disbursements of funds to the Five Colleges by majority vote. Decisions affecting the structure of the University itself must be made unanimously.
Community Relations and Funding
Each College receives a monthly grant of 10,000 gp (50,000 gp altogether for the University) from the Knights to help pay for faculty and supplies. The University has also been aggressively seeking support from other institutions, including local temples, guilds, merchant groups, and several parent organizations in Greatspace. It has offered limited access to its sages and resources in exchange for such support, and a considerable amount has been forthcoming. The total amount of outside support approaches the funding levels of the Knights, amounting to an additional 250,000 gp in endowment and pledges of 50,000 gp a month. Despite this influx of funding from outside sources, the faculty of the University fiercely defend their independence, since they have experienced enough traumatic dislocation for one lifetime and desire to control their further destiny as much as possible.
The University actively seeks employment for its staff
and members, and claims a 10-20% surcharge on all fees charged to help
cover the cost of its facilities and staff. (This surcharge is waved
for the Knights because of their special relationship with the
University). A small proportion of the University's funding comes
from student fees. Though traditionally a solid source of income, the
level of education and limited population in Seedspace makes high
tuition impracticable. Thus, students find themselves drawn into
research projects to help finance their education. Given this urgent
need for funds, the University immediately found itself drawn into the
economic activities of the community. The current structure and
population composition of Seedspace insure that the University will
remain an integral part of Seedspace's economic health far into the
future.