QUESTION: How far off is the campus bell from the actual time? Who controls the bell time and how?
÷ Anonymous

ANSWER:

Well, my time-obsessed friend, thank you for your questions.

This is something I've wondered about myself. I mean, why exactly does the bell chime 2 1/2 minutes fast?

Of course, the answer appears simple at first: It's a subtle method of mind manipulation that "encourages" students to show up to class three minutes early. But to indulge your question, I decided to look a little bit past the surface. Just who is responsible for this dilemma? What can be done about it?

Sharon Kha, UA spokeswoman, tipped me off. "Facilities Management is responsible for the chimes in the Admin building, but in fact an outside company installed the chimes. And the company has no idea who sold it to us, or who could adjust the clock."

Hmm, so they had to hire somebody from the outside, some mysterious "company." And conveniently, no one knows who can adjust when the bell tolls.

"So until we find someone to adjust it, the chimes are likely to remain three minutes fast," Kha added.

Still perplexed, I went straight to the director of Facilities Management, who directed me to his assistant director, who directed me to the manager of Utilities Management, Bob Herman, who directed me to Kim Griffin, an electronics technician. Whew.

Said the time travelers over at Facilities Management, this mysterious "outside company" ÷ known to those in the know as "Roh's Electronics" ÷ doesn't actually set the clocks installed. That around-the-clock job belongs to, it turns out, Facilities Management.

And thanks to your question, Anonymous, things are about to change.

"The clocks should be reset tomorrow," Herman said.

"We're looking to update the system, and we'll be able to adjust it remotely through telephone lines," Griffin said.

That's what they said yesterday, so now that the clock is back on track, we can rest a little easier knowing we have those valuable couple of minutes back · so we can still be late to class.

So as it turns out, someone can in fact turn back the clock.

÷ Investigation by Detective Kris Cabulong

The Campus Detective needs work! If you've got a case to be solved about some UA-related mystery, e-mail him at catcalls@wildcat.arizona.edu.