The change of Uni’s bell-tone earlier this year was one that almost immediately met with backlash from the vast majority of students and even some faculty, but has now fallen out of the limelight as many have come to terms with the change and no longer pay too much mind to it. Does this mean the new bell-tone is something people have become acclimated to and ultimately isn’t too big of an issue? Quite evidently, the answer would be yes, but that isn’t to say that the new tone is superior to its predecessor. The new system doesn’t make any sort of new strides that warrants the change, and ultimately serves to be more frustrating than practical.

The primary purpose of a bell is to indicate the marking points for the beginnings and endings of class respectively. It is crucial then, that at a bare minimum the bell should be able to be heard from any corner of the school. Unfortunately, the new tone cannot accomplish this, as the sound is so muted that it is often unintelligible from key locations such as the library or restrooms. Not being able to hear the bell presents a pretty glaring issue in that some students may be unaware of the passage of classes, and as such can lead to unintended tardies which isn’t exactly in any teacher’s best interest. When put in comparison to the old bell, it really is no contest, as the previous iteration could be pretty well heard even through something like the orchestra playing.

Furthermore, aside from missing out on the core aspect of what makes a bell crucial to the school, the new tone is also not being used to its full potential. Arguably, the one time the bells had some sort of positive effect on the Uni population was its use during spirit week, when music was played in place of the hollow sounding current bell tone, with people singing along as a result. While the new bells have a versatility that the previous ones lacked, the music choice was one that was used as a quick gag, with the more quiet and subdued sound now being used essentially all of the time. While there was initially talk of trying other tones in the event that the first one did not meet the standards, no other ones were ever actually tried in day to day use.

Having a freedom to choose from a number of bell sounds should be something considered by both students and faculty for functionality since they will be relying on it most, but this choice was never offered to us and thus we had to get acclimated with an inferior product as a result. It is no wonder that when the old bells had to be reused last week while the newer ones were being maintenanced, students not only felt nostalgic for their use but also once again briefly outcried for their continued usage, before dying down once again when the newer tones returned.