Shiz University
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Shiz University is a fictional university located in the Land of Oz in Gregory Maguire's revisionist novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Shiz also appears in Wicked, the hit Broadway musical based on the book. In the book, Shiz is a cluster of several different colleges, a similar arrangement to British universities such as Cambridge and Oxford. At Shiz, Crage Hall is the only all-female school. The University is described as looking like a jumble of many different types of architecture but with cafes, trees, gardens and ivy-covered walls. Other schools mentioned include Three Queens, Ozma towers and Briscoe Hall. Although some classes and events are coeducational, the overall gender segregation is apparent.
Early on, Galinda notes that Crage Hall "wasn't one of the better colleges - they were still closed to female students. But it was Shiz University." Madame Morrible is the headmistress of Crage Hall, attended by a Tik-Tok creature that does her bidding. The university is attended by many of the main characters of the story, including Elphaba, Galinda, Fiyero, Nessarose, and Boq. A Goat Doctor Dillamond is a prominent science instructor and Animal activist, whom Elphaba briefly assists in the lab before his throat is slit under rather dubious circumstances. In time, the authoritarianism of the Wizard restricts the curriculum and teachers to such a degree that Elphaba drops out.
Shiz in the musical is a (presumably) co-educational place where Madame Morrible is the headmistress and all of the main characters go to school. It is somewhat cliquish, where Elphaba is ostracized for her looks and ways while Galinda is easily the most popular girl in school. The uniform for the school is a striped jacket and pants/skirt, colored blue and white.
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