The plan to put the bell from Withers Hall into the Bell Tower may be exchanged for a new plan to install a brand new bell.

According to Matt Robbins, a graduate student in architecture who researched the bell’s history and started the original plan to relocate the Withers Hall bell, he and Student Body President Jay Dawkins are in the early stages of feasibility studies to determine prices and other factors.

“We are weighing our options to see if our timing is right during the [Bell Tower] renovation process that we could actually get a bell passed and hoisted up in there in the time frame that we have,” he said.

The University received funds in the General Assembly’s budget to pay for Bell Tower renovations, according to Kevin MacNaughton, associate vice chancellor for Facilities, but any other bell project must be funded through donations.

The University will renovate the Bell Tower to improve weakening joints and its overall structural integrity, MacNaughton said, and independent contractors will bid on an existent work plan for the renovations in December.

With the Bell Tower renovation project set to begin in the late fall or early spring of next year, according to Robbins, the window to complete a plan for the installation of a new bell is small.

“They have to cut a big hole in the ceiling for some machinery, and when they do that, we have to put the bell up,” he said. “They’re going to seal it when they’re finished.”

According to Robbins, the City of Raleigh has expressed interest in using the Withers Hall bell in its new Public Safety Center downtown.

Moving the bell there would show collaboration between the University and the city, MacNaughton said, and according to Robbins, the bell is as much the community’s as the University’s because of its location on the edge of campus.

If the bell from Withers Hall is moved downtown, another option could be installing a brand new bell with donations from students and alumni, and Robbins said there must be consensus between the University and the surrounding community before any action is taken.

“It will change the way that people look at N.C. State, and it will change the way that people think about the Bell Tower,” he said.

Dawkins, a junior in civil engineering, said the project’s main obstacle is fundraising.

“This is a large project and there are a lot of variables that go into it, especially the cost,” he said.

Robbins said he hopes the support from his initial project will continue with a new one, but the public will determine its fate.

“If the people want it, they’ll pay for it,” he said.