Feel free to use any/all/none of it or edit as you like...I got some ideas from The Ghosts of the University of Arizona so you might find something there you like as well.
Deadwood College
by GreenbrierKern, Sablestone
Prince Harald Haaskinz, as Grandmaster of the Great School of Magic, is today the very face of Glantrian education itself. However he well knows that not every Glantrian has the talent for, or can afford, to attend the world's premier magic school. So Harald has also worked for the betterment of his people through education closer to home, going back to his days as Archduke of Westheath.
When Harald became Prince of Sablestone in 1004 he was shocked to find out just how little education had been available for the young people of the far west during the Free Province days. What opportunities did exist were primarily due to Eve Beadle (MU 10, Lawful), a spinster of Fenswick descent, who came west years ago after graduating from the Great School and fell in love with the dry, dusty landscape and the hardworking people. She drove an old wagon pulled by mules around the province, providing instruction in the countryside and encouraging parents in the few towns with Temples of Rad to take advantage of the schooling offered there. Harald promptly asked her to serve as Sablestone's first Minister of Education.
When war breaks out in 1005, Harald hears from Eve that most of the few families who can afford to send their children to the Great School now refuse to do so, as they fear an Alphatian attack on the capital may come at any time. By 1006 when the Council creates several new western baronies, Harald sees that the west is growing and needs a true magical school closer to home. The people and the needs are different out here, and Harald sets out to create Deadwood College - designed to be the second most eminent magical school in all of Glantri, right here in Sablestone. The name comes from the site he has chosen for the school, beside a formerly dry creekbed on the outskirts of Kern. It was named Deadwood Gulch by the locals because it was filled with long-dead trees before Harald's efforts to increase the flow of the Sablestone River filled the channel once again. He always thought it was a colorful name, a Sablestone name, and it will remind everyone of why HE, not Isabella de Montebello or Pieter Vandehaar, is Prince of Sablestone in the first place.
Planning and construction are slowed by the years of war and plague, and were not without their mishaps. A Belcadiz carpenter, Carlos Maldenado, was said to have run up too many gambling debts in the seedier taverns of Kern and one morning the crew enters the skeletal structure of the College to find Carlos sitting dead in a chair, a large knife sticking out of his neck. Later on in the process a local member of the Sisters of the Private House is found dead in one of the rooms. Two Tooth Gertie, well-known in Kern, was apparently using the still-open building to entertain customers at night. Of course mischievious students will later insist that the school is haunted by the ghosts of these unfortunate souls...
By the time Deadwood College opens Harald has already become Grandmaster of the Great School of Magic in the capital. Nonetheless, he is quite pleased with Sablestone's own magic school and presides over the grand opening ceremony himself. Harald is particularly proud of some of the staff he assembled, as he wants to focus on practical magics that can be of use in the region -
*Eve Beadle is tired of her bumpy wagon and has agreed to serve as the first Headmistress
*Dominick Haaskinz will teach all-important water magic in the arid region, although he is prone to long absences and frequently has another member of the Secret Craft of Water Elementalism fill in for him. Harald wants his heir to be seen by the people of Sablestone as much as possible, and hopes he will take over the school once Eve Beadle retires for good
*an Alfheim refugee elf wizard, highly skilled with plant magic, is anxious to study the Stolari and Sandfolk on the nearby plateau and will teach magical botany
*a gnomish wicca all the way from Highforge in Karameikos, eager to study the ores of the area and ready to share his advanced (dwarven, and he knows not to say that) mining techniques combined with magic
*a retired Caurenzan monster handler will teach husbandry of magical beasts, and Harald hopes to start some herds of magical livestock to help make money for the school
*Harald uses his position as Grandmaster and his network of contacts to try and have one higher-profile instructor teach a course at Deadwood College each quarter - so far this has led to Baron Gerrid Rientha teaching a seminar on trade, Harald's sister Tereis teaching air magic, and Ralindi Virayana instructng the students on basic illusions. The illusions course won't be repeated anytime soon - the school received numerous complaints from locals after over-eager students had a bit too much fun conjuring mirages of oases and bubbling streams of water which greatly excited farmers in the area.
Harald is also ahead of the Great School in one area - Deadwood College will teach Sindhi to the students, as the Sindhi refugee population grows in the west and Harald forsees increased trade and other links coming down the road. Harald also hopes to pioneer the teaching of some unique Sindhi magics here, which can he later introduce at the Great School. Room & board is the same for any resident students, but tuition comes in three tiers - lowest (and heavily subsidized if needed) for Sablestone & West End FP residents, middle for those from South or West of the Isoile River, and highest for students from other parts of Glantri or abroad. Students from Sablestone & the West End also have preference in admissions and other students are only admitted as space allows (so far there has always been space for at least a few high-tuition foreign students...the bills do have to be paid after all).
Another uniquely Sablestone feature is the school calendar - Deadwood College operates on a quarter system with breaks planned at times that coincide with the cattle drives and crop planting & harvesting seasons that many poor students still need to assist their families with. The school's basement contains a cafeteria along with laboratories, and the 3rd floor has dormitory rooms for students whose families do not live in Kern. Eve Beadle's last surviving mule, Liza Jane, enjoys a well-earned retirement in her corral behind the college. The younger children continually supply her with unwanted vegetables from their meals, and she has become the school's unofficial mascot.
