 Campus claims biggest, hardest
campanile in country
(Ames,
IA) Iowa State University released a statement on Monday boasting that
its campanile was bigger and harder than any others in the country.
The veracity of the claim has been difficult to check, though
Iowa State freshman Angie
Sheiffer described the campanile as “scary big”
after her first experience with it up close last semester.
“I
don't know what it was but it almost seemed to grow larger right before
my eyes,” she said, adding with a giggle, “It's
definitely the biggest I've ever seen, and, oh my god, those bells were
gi-normous!”
The
magnificent tower has stood completely erect since 1898 while the
first bells on the well-hung instrument were installed in 1899. A
carillon console was put in place thirty years later.
The university's carillonneur, Dr. Shin-Ta Tim, who sometimes performs for hours, says playing may look enjoyable
but it is a lot of work. “It is quite hard and requires such a physical, hands-on technique, pounding and hammering away, bells swinging, that sometimes I
really work up a sweat.” But, she says, in the end
it is usually worth it, adding with satisfaction, “occasionally it is worth it
a couple times in the middle, too."
It
is likely Dr. Tim and her successors will be able to safely enjoy and
share the pleasures of the enormously large and solid shaft far into
the future. This is because in 1991, during a long overdue and
costly renovation project, an anonymous donor contributed $1 million to
ensure that the university's campanile would remain permanently
well-endowed.
Some
campuses have paid the claim little notice saying it amounts to nothing
more than vanity. Others even cite it as a classic
case of institutional over-compensation for academic or athletic
inadequacies. University of Southern California
athletic director Mitt Garrek remarked, “Any school that has won 3 Rose
Bowls in the last 5 years doesn't need to flaunt the size of its
campanile,” adding, “mind you, not that we couldn't flaunt ours
if we wanted to.”
Other
schools argue that the importance should be placed on the quality
of the performance rather than on size. “Really,
the focus ought to be on how one uses one's campanile not on how big or
hard one's is,” remarked Harvard's Associate Provost Mrs.
Kathy Buckleen.
A few campuses even discount Iowa
State's claim all together, such as the University of Wisconsin, whose
president, Mr. Kevin R. Peilly, said dismissively,
“Eh. I've seen bigger.”
The
campanile is apparently not the campus' only enviable architecture. Its main
library is also reported by many students to be “totally
stacked.”
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