Northwestern Notes: Campus clocks inconsistent; Shafer Tower inept

How many times has this happened to you? You're on your way to class and you know you have a good ten minutes until your professor starts reciting something useful, when you start to hear the bell tower toll its comical, mournful cry.

You get a little confused since you're never sure exactly what time the chimes are supposed to sound. You look at the watch you've set to the Preview Channel's clock. You have five minutes until you're supposed to report, but you pick up your pace to escape the tower's wailing, only to find yourself locked out of class and forced to interrupt your professor.

Well, you're not alone.

Students and instructors alike are constantly being misled by the clocks on the walls of Ball State. It would be one thing if they all ran on the same wave of inconsistency, but some are ahead of schedule, others are behind, and many rooms can't even claim one of their own.

Some seem to have been fatally wounded and hang like dead soldiers to confuse the heck out of the population.

It seems that each building has its own time zone; you might be late to a class at Cooper Science, but early to one held in Ball Communications. For a state so opposed to daylight savings time, doesn't it seem a little ironic to run a public university under the mercy of a regime that seems to be headed by The Thief of Always?

Maybe, we should start constructing sundials. For the amount of money that you and the Indiana taxpayers give Ball State, don't you think we could at least be guaranteed to have our clocks run consistently and accurately across campus?

Many students were under the impression that the completion of Shafer Tower would amend the problem and allow a universal consistency to reign, but apparently sticking a clock face in a structure devoted to bells isn't seen as kosher.

How are we supposed to have a conducive learning environment if we don't even know what time it is? It may seem small, but when you are being preached to (in front of your peers) by a professor who is a member of the Time Gestapo you see it in a different perspective.

Maybe we could convince the powers that be to direct some of those Eli Lilly funds toward the cause. Wouldn't it be great to run on a stable time schedule?

Just think, having the security of an accurate clock system could improve your overall performance in those classes that appear to be endless because they are in fact running over.

It could be great, but for now it seems what we are left with is a bunch of broken clocks and an inept tower with which any amateur Freudian could have a field day.