Now that shopping period is over and being to class on time matters, students can once again rely on the clock atop Wayland Arch to help them stay on time. The tower's clock now works, and other faulty campus clocks could soon be synchronized as well.
According to Stephen Maiorisi, vice president for Facilities Management, the clock had been broken for a number of years and had been fixed last semester until new problems with the clock's rhythm began.
"We just recently fixed the clock this past fall when we installed a new electronic controller and replaced the lamps on the tower," Maiorisi said. "For a while, it hadn't been working before last fall."
But after the clock returned to service, it became increasingly fast, said Wayland House resident Andrew Jacobs '08.
"This is just my memory, which could be very warped, but I remember that Wayland had all these new lights in the tower, which is great, and that the clock was working, which is also great," he said.
"Slowly over the course of the fall semester, I noticed that it was becoming fast," Jacobs said. "It started off a minute or two fast and then became up to 10 or 12 minutes fast by the end of the semester. Then I came back this semester, and it was 15 to 20 minutes fast."
Maiorisi said he believes the fast timing can be attributed to monthly load tests on the Sharpe Refectory's generator that disrupt the clock's controlling mechanism.
Facilities Management has been working with the clock controller's manufacturer, Electric Time, and the distributor, About Time, to fix the clock, but they do not think there is a problem with the clock's physical mechanisms. Maiorisi said he expects a new control board to arrive soon.
The clock was part of the Wriston Quadrangle expansion of Brown's campus, which was designed by Thomas Mott Shaw and officially added to the University on June 1, 1952, following that year's commencement exercises.
According to then-President Henry Wriston, the expansion was intended to stimulate student life on Brown's campus.
In a May 12, 1952 article in The Herald, Wriston said, "If we are to show forth a primary regard for the individual, if we are to insist upon his infinite value and emphasize his obligation to wrestle with infinite problems, there must be fitting surroundings."
The new campus completed the vision of Brown's fourth president, Francis Wayland, who first called for better student housing in the 1850s.
Meg Sarachan '07 said the clock's incorrect time had occasionally confused her on her way to class, and she was glad it was fixed. "It sort of looks shabby when things are broken or in need of repair," she said, adding that the clock on Wilson Hall is still a few minutes fast.
Maiorisi said Facilities Management hopes to coordinate the University's public clocks.
"One of the things we are looking into now in facilities is getting a central system that would be wireless and that would control all the outside clocks on campus so that they would be synchronized," he said.
There is no timetable for the changes, and Facilities Management is still looking into the potential costs of such a system.
