As we've begun construction on some of the main academic buildings, I've been gathering opinions from both the mainland and Kembora as to how we should provide housing for the academy. As much as I'd like to keep everything uniform to foster a sense of unity among anyone here, that's just not going to be feasible. At a minimum, we're going to need four different kinds of housing, and we'll probably need more if we invite in humans and elves at some point.

Basically, the three forms of housing are for nobles, dwarves, small demons, and large demons. Other than the nobles who might bring their own kitchen staff, the rest of the students will have a shared dining hall. The different housings will still all be nearby each other as well. The issue comes down to the fact that nobles often bring support staff who need housing, and that dwarves and different demons have different living requirements and preferences. There isn't a one room size fits all possibility.

Outside of that though, the style of the buildings, the general layout, and the approximate accommodation quality will all be the same for non-nobles. To an extent, the nobles will be getting special privileges, but it will come at a financial cost. To keep things somewhat fair, noble housing will be open to anyone who can pay for it, not just those who are technically nobility. For security purposes though, each housing area for nobles will be divided in a way that allows them to be isolated for protection. The noble housing could arguably be considered multiple kinds of housing in and of itself, since we'll have to build multiple configurations for different sizes of support staff. This is being done at Kao's recommendation after a bit of back and forth communication which included a few back and forth drafts.

While not ideal, its a compromise that, according to Kao at least, is likely to get a lot more buy in from the mainland. Since a large part of the project is exactly that, getting the mainland to buy in to the idea of us being valuable and them being willing to come here, its a compromise I'm willing to make. So noble accommodations, given the length of time people are required to participate in the academy for, will each have their own kitchen, servants quarters, dining area, study, and bedroom or bedrooms.

We'll also be providing individual housing for faculty, which I didn't include as part of the academic housing since it is so different. All the academic housing will be built close to the campus, where as faculty housing will be part of the town built nearby that will include the port, fishing areas, farming, and any factories we decide to build nearby.

There was quite a bit of discussion back and forth with Kao about the requirements for durations spent at the academy as well. As I've previously stated, the idea is that individuals spend years here before they leave. However, I wasn't very clear about my intentions with this. In my mind, an academy like this isn't a year round endeavor. There would be one, possibly two breaks in the academic year. That would provide time for students to return to their homeland for a period of time to visit with family.

That time period has to be kept within fairly tight bounds, however. Too long, and individuals might teach others back home a large amount before their tenure is up. Too short, and the travel times to and from the island would make up a significant amount of the break. What was settled upon were two breaks in the year, both being two months long. Due to the chances of strong storms preventing travel during spring, we've centered the breaks at the beginning of winter and the beginning of summer. The general idea is that, as a result of the length of time students spend at the academy, we'll essentially get first dibs on new technology, keeping the rest of the world a few years behind us.

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However, we'll only be providing a free trip back once a year for students during the winter months, since after that is when we'll be defining the academic school year as beginning. This whole endeavor will technically be a money sink for both the dwarves and us. Kao agreed to pay for a portion of the academy's operations for 20 years as part of our previous negotiations, so we won't be burdened with all the operational costs for a while at least. Due to the academy being on our islands however, we'll be responsible for providing food and a decent amount of the labor required to keep things operating. The dwarves will be providing the clothing and other less perishable items that are used more frequently like cooking utensils.

Classes won't be all day either, and we do plan on opening up part time work to those who want to take it, as long as they continue to meet academic standards. Any participating country will have a requirement to ensure that the students sent are of good quality as well, since we're operating the basic functions of the academy as a free service. Those who show a high aptitude for a particular field may be recommended to come here to further their skill building, even if they are lowborn. Obviously, their government has to approve of it, which is also why the requirements are different for nobles, including a fee.

Since nobles would be the ones making the recommendations to begin with, it wouldn't be fair to allow them to send all their children here despite potential aptitude differences. So instead, nobility have to pay a fee regardless of aptitude. That fee can be returned if they perform well while at the academy, however.

Faculty is going to be a bit of a problem to select as well, and I haven't fully figured out how we're going to go about it. There are a lot of fields I'd like to have faculty for that I doubt there are any qualified individuals to actually teach, like physics and chemistry. In order to garner attention to the academy, for a while I'm going to teach engineering with the hope that at least one student in the future can take the role over while I move on to one of the other categories where no one is currently qualified. If I'm lucky, there might be some individuals who are already talented in physics or similar science fields that I could individually train up to work as faculty in a year or two's time.

Regardless, I'm going to also be spending a lot of time during the academy's construction interviewing individuals for faculty positions. Some will be demons, but I expect a larger majority to be dwarves. Kao has a task force going around their country looking for individuals to fill positions, and I'll be responsible for approving or denying them.

There are quite a few studies that I want to have filled, though I can't say whether or not we'll be able to fill all of them. Since I'm also trying to foster a sense of understanding between groups, we'll also be mandating a small amount of classes for all students even outside of their general area of study. These include things like dwarven history, the history of Kembora, and general mathematics. Since I myself am not skilled in a lot of the areas of study I'd like to have available, when I'm approving recommended faculty in those areas, I'll instead be looking at temperament and personality.

Just like universities on earth, there will be specific categories of study under more generalized ones. So the plan is to have an entire department of dwarven studies which will include dwarven history, dwarvish language, dwarven politics, dwarven customs, and any additional studies that Kao recommends we include. For engineering, I might bring in one or two demons from the mechanics team and some of the factory operations to teach certain lower level concepts while I teach higher level ones. There are a lot of forms of engineering, but society as a whole isn't really developed enough to have any engineers focus on one particular area yet. Similarly, I doubt that mathematics or some of the sciences have developed far enough to really be split into multiple areas of study.

So, a large part of my next six months until we determine if construction is moving fast enough to open at the start of the academic year is going to be spent on faculty interviews and coursework planning as faculty agree to work with us. I don't expect that the first year, or even the first few years, will go smoothly, so I'm trying not to be too critical of everything at the start as I select faculty.

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