大象传媒

'Big Ben' No Longer 'Big'

Campus clock to resemble British icon

For most of his life, Ben Panigot, director of Campus Safety, has been known to his friends as â聙聹Big Ben.â聙聺

â聙聹Itâ聙聶s kind of unavoidable when you stand 6â聙聶 4â聙聺 tall, youâ聙聶re broad-shouldered and large-footed and your name is Benjamin,â聙聺 he says with a laugh. â聙聹Itâ聙聶s better than being called Bigfoot.â聙聺

This longstanding pseudonym has come to an end, now that there will be an actual â聙聹Big Benâ聙聺 on campus. Well, sort of.

â聙聹Many people donâ聙聶t realize that â聙聵Big Benâ聙聶 is the name of the bell inside the clocktower,â聙聺 says Carole Woolford-Hunt, chair of the Department of Graduate Psychology & Counseling, who was born and raised in London. â聙聹We donâ聙聶t have a bell yet, but we do have a clock.â聙聺

The clock to which Woolford-Hunt refers is the black and gold landmark that stands between the Administration Building and Nethery Hall, a gift from the class of 2004.

â聙聹Weâ聙聶ve designed a shell-like structure to be placed over the campus clock to make it look like the tower housing Big Ben in London,â聙聺 explains Kristin von Maur, assistant professor of architecture. â聙聹It will be weather-proof for the harsh conditions it will endure every summer and winter, and will be an exact scale replica of the belltower on the Houses of Parliament.â聙聺

The clock wonâ聙聶t just visually hark back to the Universityâ聙聶s British ties; administration has also asked the Department of Music to identify an exact recording of the sound Big Ben makes when it chimes every quarter hour.

â聙聹The difficulty in not having a bell in your belltower is that you donâ聙聶t have a straightforward way to make the clock chime,â聙聺 says Claudio Gonzalez, professor of music. â聙聹We are working tirelessly to locate a sound recording that replicates the sound of Big Ben, and weâ聙聶re very close to finalizing it.â聙聺

Plant Services has procured the hardware which will allow the clock to chime once the recording is obtained, and ITS has finished the programming required for the clock to chime accurately every fifteen minutes.

â聙聹This has really been a team effort,â聙聺 comments Lorena Bidwell, Chief information Officer. â聙聹I think the result will be very impressively British.â聙聺

The clock is expected to be finished in time for graduation.