While the alumni tower is a prominent structure on campus, I, and many of my friends find it to be quite annoying. The issues that irritate me are the loud volume and the repetitious nature the songs.
Ever since move-in day, I have wondered about the purpose of the loud and obnoxious songs that the alumni tower chimes hourly. As the tower chimes away every hour, on the hour, I try to imagine who could possibly enjoy the ringing. It doesn’t matter where you are on campus, you basically can’t avoid hearing the bells. I hate the alumni tower the most on weekends. I have lost count of the number of times I have been woken up on a weekend morning to the annoying and obnoxious ringing bells. As crazy as it sounds, I could swear I’ve heard the volume increasing greatly for short periods of time, mainly on Sundays.
Another irritation is that the songs the tower chimes out seem to all be the same. Is it just me, or are there never any new songs? Sometimes I notice a different tune, but then a few days later the tower usually goes back to the same old song. If we have to suffer through these songs each hour, at least be creative enough to change them around some.
In general conversation, I have heard many of my friends and fellow students express similar frustrations. I have yet to meet someone who actually enjoys hearing the tower chime for five minutes every hour. Many of my friends, as well as myself, feel that the tower should only chime the time. Another possibility of a solution would be to turn the volume down – even that would be a great improvement.
SincerelyBrantley Smith
