They each took a door to push open, the neglected hinges squealing as if terrified of moving on their axes. The space itself was wide and deep, like an open, yawning beast's mouth sans the drooling tongue. At the moment, it was crammed full of odds and ends and flotsam and jetsam - broken shelves, torn tomes, entire sets of vials and tubes for alchemy purposes. Even some abandoned consoles and computers were here.

Ronovi herself had never taken a look into this storage room, but it was this way with any vicinity - things piled up.

"Well?" Solus asked, arching an eyebrow as if in anticipation. "What do you think?"

She let her lips curl in a daring smile. With all of this cleared out, long tables, chairs, and podiums could be brought in. Perhaps even an entire construct of pews or circular formations of pods, if they wanted to be of their proper time period. Sure, certain elements of the Academy were intentionally antiquated, but this did not have to be.

"It's perfect," she said, as the two viewed their new council arena.

Right on schedule, the Shadow Academy has released its second installment of the Debate courses - Debate: Refutation. Branching out from the rudimentary Argumentation lesson, this course allows you to take a stab at refutation, as well as counter-refutation, whilst debating. Basically, this is the course where you learn how to tell people they're wrong. What more could you possibly want?

You can take the exam by clicking the link below:

http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/shadowacademy/sa/course.php?ID=117

As previously planned, both Debate exams are now requisites for everyone who in the future works for a Dark Sage in Law. They will subsequently replace the two electives requirement as previously noted.

And now that Argumentation and Refutation are both up, we will be planning our very first official Shadow Academy Debate League event. I know some of you have expressed interest in a debate competition, and we will be debuting it on the Brotherhood forums. Obviously, each competitor will be placed on the positive or negative parties, to argue anything from Brotherhood policies to Star Wars universe situations.

In the near future, we will have sign-ups available, so be on the look-out.

The next few sections are going to have several tidbits, so bear with me as we go through all of them.

• Audits, once again, are going slowly but surely. I do sincerely apologize for the delay in producing cleaner and better exams - the process tends to take a while, and sometimes I need to <del>cattle prod</del> encourage my professors to not just spellcheck but also completely look over the answer keys and exam content. Obviously, that's not to say my staff isn't hard at work - it's just tough when you've got grading and editing to do at the same time, and many of my workers are also involved in their separate units.

But if you feel like the audit ain't going fast enough for ya, you're welcome to shoot me and Slags an e-mail if you wish to help. Currently, we need most assistance with the Philosophy department.

• The Dark Sage Writing course is going strong thus far. By Week Four, we have had two students drop out, but seven more still hang on tight to see if they can earn this awesome degree.

• We are looking for someone to write a brand new History of the Sith Empire exam depicting the history between KoToR and ToR. If you think you have what it takes to write this course, hit Slagar and me up and express your interest. That way, my Praetor can work directly with you on the course write-up.

• In terms of asking for degrees, a few changes: Not only must you CC my Praetor on every e-mail, but I also ask that you provide the grades and your dossier PIN in order for us to more smoothly grant you your degree. If you do not CC my Praetor or provide your PIN, your request goes into my trash.

• At the moment, Shadow Academy submission, pass, and fail notifications are showing up in spam folders. This is probably due to some new members falsely assuming it was spam and marking it as such. Please do us a favor by marking all automated SA exam notices you receive in your spam folder as "Not Spam," in order to make things more efficient. Much appreciated!

This is more of a fun little thing, but I'd like to take the time to recommend a Star Wars-based comic titled Darths and Droids. Set in a universe where the Star Wars franchise did not exist, several people play Star Wars like it's a tabletop D&D game. It's excruciatingly funny, and it very cleverly pokes at the Star Wars series as a whole.

Perhaps one of the SA staff's favorites, this is one example:

Read it from the beginning. I guarantee you'll like it:

http://www.darthsanddroids.net/

As with any new course releases and audits, the Shadow Academy staff more than welcomes input and feedback regarding our work. That being the case, we invite all of you to submit your concerns in e-mail form so we know exactly what you'd like to see added, fixed, or omitted.

We work very hard to ensure that the Shadow Academy is a fun and efficient part of the Brotherhood. We also are great with discussions in e-mail. So you are welcome to take our invitation into account now or in the future.

Okay cool.

TL;DR:

• Debate II: Refutation is available. Dark Sage of Law requires both Argumentation and Refutation courses now.
• First Debate League event sign-ups will begin soon. Be on the look-out.
• Audits still ongoing; hit us up if you wish to help.
• Dark Sage Writing Course: Seven students still writing.
• E-mail us if you wish to write a new Sith Empire History exam with history between KoToR and ToR; Slagar will be joining you on the project.
• Please add exam scores and PINs to degree request e-mails; also, CC my Praetor.
• SA e-mails being marked as spam; please mark as "Not Spam."
• Check out Darths and Droids.
• E-mail us if you have any input or feedback for us and the SA at large.

Last month, we had the Millennium Falcon school; now we have the R2-D2 Observatory. Essentially, Carleton College's astronomy building was prank-changed into the famous droid:

• Ronovi Tavisaen Dupar Headmaster of the Shadow Academy