OUR OPINION: The Bell Tower is nothing without a real bell — the University needs to fix this.
The University is returning the bell from the top of Withers Hall to the Raleigh Fire Department Nov. 14.While the bell was originally a gift from the fire department, the University needs to push for assistance in obtaining a replacement. That bell was intended for use in the Bell Tower. If the University is not going to use the Withers bell, it needs to find and purchase a bell for the Bell Tower.Matt Robbins, graduate teaching assistant in architecture and the student who traced the history of the Withers bell, said the University planned to place the bell in the Bell Tower or keep in on top of Withers for use in sounding the bells between classes.However, the bell was not placed in the Bell Tower and is no longer a practical way to mark the end and start of classes. According to Robbins, the City of Raleigh originally gave the bell to the RFD at the same time it started paying them, turning it into a professional fire-fighting force.The bell has little significance to the University. The Bell Tower, though, is both a monument to students who served in World War I and a testament to the students’ will to fund the Bell Tower’s construction after the University ran out of money to complete it.Yet it has no bell. As the “Red Means Go” rebranding campaign says, we are the autobahn of innovation and a gateway to an amazing future — a future without any sense of our campus’ history if a bell isn’t installed.Robbins said Raleigh Fire Chief John McGrath wanted to make the Withers Hall bell a living piece of history and restore the bell so it can ring again.The University needs to remember its history. There is no actual bell in the Bell Tower — so why do we call it by this misleading name?If the statue of Abraham Lincoln wasn’t there, the Lincoln Memorial would merely be another building instead of a tribute to one of the greatest American presidents.Similarly, the Bell Tower without a bell is just a tower, instead of being a tribute to the sacrifice of WWI veterans and a symbol of the students’ efforts to complete the tower when the University could not.It needs a bell, and the University needs to use this opportunity to make getting and paying for a bell for the Bell Tower a priority.