Timeline of important dates for the college
The (hopefully lasting) return of Magic to the Terra plane.
From the paper "On matters magical and structural: The importance of potpourri":
"...I propose we throw out that method entirely. Instead, we ought come to understand magic as a kind of ineffable potpourri, an unknowable melange of forms, flavors, and forces. By this conceit we can examine and describe individual cloves of significant interest without arousing the anger of Magic by arrogant suppositions of greater understanding."
Baoying Liang officially opens Pearl College for its first semester, admitting 18 students who were to be taught by 3 faculty members.
Baoying Liang negotiates a deal whereby Pearl College joined the new land grant Illinois University of Natural Science, which was (incidentally) granted the College's land by the state. Part of the agreement was that Pearl College continues on as a fully autonomous unit within the broader university structure. Later historians mark this as the moment that magical study truly stabilized, both at the College and in the "New World."
No one outside the Liang Family--and perhaps not even outside the Deans themselves--knows exactly why, but the position of college Dean can only be passed on through death. Since this first transfer of power from Baoying Liang to Tianyu Liang, it has been the family tradition that Deans divine the date and time of their death, allowing them to prepare and execute the transition ritual.