'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 “Big Ben.”

“It’s kind of unavoidable when you stand 6’ 4” tall, you’re broad-shouldered and large-footed and your name is Benjamin,” he says with a laugh. “It’s better than being called Bigfoot.”

This longstanding pseudonym has come to an end, now that there will be an actual “Big Ben” on campus. Well, sort of.

“Many people don’t realize that ‘Big Ben’ is the name of the bell inside the clocktower,” says Carole Woolford-Hunt, chair of the Department of Graduate Psychology & Counseling, who was born and raised in London. “We don’t have a bell yet, but we do have a clock.”

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.

“We’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,” explains Kristin von Maur, assistant professor of architecture. “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.”

The clock won’t just visually hark back to the University’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.

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

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.

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

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