The Senior Class Council has placed yellow tags of different sizes around campus to promote donations for the senior class gift. The class of 2010 voted in early September to leave the University with a new bell for the Bell Tower as part of the Finish the Bell Tower Campaign.
The tags give examples of different gifts from senior classes in the past as well as other donations given by alumni and community members.
Senior Class Council member Neil Ballentine, a senior in biology, said the tags are meant to spread awareness about the important role private giving plays in the success of the University.
“We want students to realize that a lot of things they see and use every day come from private donations,” Ballentine said. “Senior class gifts are a way for students to be a part of that giving.”
The Senior Class Council will be accepting donations in the Brickyard from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every day this week as a part of Senior Week. Students will also have the opportunity to ask friends and family to donate money, according to Senior Class President Jay Dawkins.
Dawkins, a senior in civil engineering, said he hopes seniors will want to leave their own mark on the campus just as other seniors have left their mark in the past.
“Any contributor who donates at least $210 will have their name engraved on the outside of the bell and will also be recognized as a part of the Chancellor’s Circle Giving Society,” Dawkins said. “We also have class T-shirts and Finish the Bell Tower shirts for $20.10.”
The Finish the Bell Tower Campaign began two years ago when Matt Robbins, a graduate student in architecture, set out to finish the seventy-year old project.
“The original Bell Tower was designed in 1920 but could not be finished because of the Great Depression,” Robbins said. “The senior classes of 1941 to 1948 put money together to buy bells for the tower but only raised enough money to buy an electronic system, which is still in use today.”
Robbins said his goal is to pick up where the class of 1948 left off and finish the Bell Tower as it was originally planned.
“This is about more than putting new bells in the bell tower,” Robbins said. “It’s about students giving back to their alma mater in order to affect the greater community. Students who contribute to this campaign will be making history. They will be able to take their children back to the University one day and show them their name on the bell.”
Robbins said he has no doubt the project will be successful, because the Bell Tower is a symbol of the University that connects alumni, students and the Raleigh community.
The size of the bell the senior class will donate depends on the monetary donations received, according to Dawkins.
“I would love for our senior class to raise $30,000 for the bell,” Dawkins said. “The larger the bell, the more space for names of senior contributors.”
