Campus clocks part of longtime IUSA campaign pledge

This summer, IU alumna Meredith Suffron, Class of 2001, came back to Bloomington to take pictures of a hole in the ground.\nNow a few months later, a red, four-faced clock fills the hole in front of Woodburn Hall and a second stands between the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and Delta Gamma Sorority with two more in the works -- tentatively planned to go in the Arboretum and on Third Street. The street clocks help students get to class on time and fulfill a campaign promise that drove Suffron's IUSA ticket five years ago.\n"I hope students who travel like I did from Ballantine Hall to psychology or business will use them," Suffron said. "I really hope it will enable students to spend more time in the different areas of campus."\nFor Suffron, the idea began in the spring of 2000 as she prepared to run for IUSA president on the Platinum ticket.\n"One of the things we ran on is the fact that all the clocks in every building were different," said IU alumnus Scott Witoszynski, Suffron's vice president of administration on the Platinum Ticket, "and you never knew what time it was."\nIn the summer of 2000, members of IUSA met with IU Foundation President Curt Simic to gain funding and write a proposal. In favor of the idea, Simic decided to get anniversary classes to sponsor each clock.\nThat's when Simic called Nancy Otte, a 1976 graduate of the School of Optometry, who became co-chair of fund raising for the clocks. Working with the IU Foundation, Otte made phone calls and sent out letters to get funding for each of the four clocks, which cost $50,000 each and feature the Global Positioning System to make them all read the same time. The class of 1976, as well as 1941 and 1942, will sponsor the clocks. The fourth will be paid for in recognition of IUSA, said Director of the IU Student Foundation Jonathan Purvis.\n"I'm one of those students who wore a watch every day," Otte said. "But I can see students using it every day."\nFirst year Ph.D. student Chris Hatch is not one of those students who wears a watch every day.\n"I noticed it this morning when I got out of my car and wondered what time it was," Hatch, standing by the Neal-Marshall clock Tuesday afternoon as rain dribbled off of his blue and white umbrella. "I had an 8 a.m. and I saw it was 7:52 and I thought, 'Well, great.'"\nThat's exactly the reaction Suffron said she was hoping for, along with the idea that the clocks, made by The Verdin Company in Cincinnati, will continue to beautify the campus.\n"They're a little bigger than I expected," said Dean of Students Richard McKaig. "But this is obviously a campus that cares what it looks like outside. I can see them becoming part of the tradition."\nSo can Simic.\n"We now have new landmarks," he said. "I can see students saying now, 'Hey, let's meet at the clock.'"\nOtte plans to visit the clock her class sponsored, which will be erected soon in the Arboretum, when she comes to campus for the IU vs. Kentucky football game in a few weeks. For now, though, she hopes students use the clocks to get to class on time.\n"The clocks will be timeless," she said.\n-- Senior Writer Mike Malik contributed to this story.