Who cares about the landscaping of the Bell Tower when no one is paying attention to the carillon?
Two and a half years ago, I wrote the DTH to look into why the carillon was not playing at noon and at 5 p.m. on weekdays as had been the custom for years. The DTH dropped the ball after I directed the reporter to contact the Music Department (who is the University Bell ringer?) and the Morehead-Cain Foundation, plus Facilities Services to see what was going on. So far NOTHING. So at this point, one-half of the undergraduate student body has never experienced hearing the carillon on a regular basis on their walks across campus.
In the meantime, over at N.C. State, their bell tower, which has had totally fake chimes for years, has finally been endowed and they are planning a 40 bell carillon (we have 16 bells).
Is everybody so glued to their smartphones and digital devices that they never pay attention to one of the most evocative elements of the UNC campus? Somebody needs to wake up the administration and look into the ongoing problem of the silent bell tower. It's more than an alarm clock in a landscape garden.
F. Marion Redd
UNC ‘67
