Somewhere, lying dormant in quiet storage rooms throughout campus, hundreds of clocks patiently await their time in the sun. For them, this glorious day arrives again Sunday.
Every year, the change back to standard time catches millions of people unaware, but public clocks are almost always coldly accurate. At the University, the mammoth task of changing the time falls on the custodial department in the facilities department.
Few people are aware of the grand production that takes place behind the scenes every 6 months when its time to change the clocks.
“People just assume the clocks will be right; they don’t even notice,” Facilities Services spokeswoman Greta Ressman said. “Most who realize that someone must be changing the times on all those clocks just assume that all are hardwired together, or that people go around winding each clock — not many people know the truth.”
The truth, however, is not a great mystery. The University has two sets of 700 clocks that are virtually identical except for a one-hour time difference. Every 6 months, on the eve of the time change, custodial staff steal out into the night, 700 clocks in tow, to physically exchange every public
campus clock with its correctly set twin.
Ridiculous? Absurd? Not so, according to Pressman.
“For over 40 years, all the clocks were hardwired together and could be changed instantly,” she said. “The problem was, it never worked. We always ended up having to go clock-to-clock and change them individually.”
The University needed $300,000 to replace the system, so the staff masterminded a new plan. For $30,000, two sets of clocks — 1,400 in all — were purchased.
“We tried other things. We tried atomic clocks, for example. They just didn’t work,” Facility Services safety trainer Keily Rasmussen said. In the end, they found standard battery-powered clocks provided strength in simplicity.
But staff found it was slow to take each clock down, change the battery and reset times individually, and replace the clock. With the dual-clock system, this procedure can occur all at once.
“(It may) seem a little strange,” Rasmussen said, “but it is actually much more efficient.”
Having the small army of twin clocks costs only $2,000 yearly, including labor, clock maintenance and battery replacement.
Most clocks have already been dispersed into their respective building closets. Any students awake at 3 a.m. on Saturday night might just witness the University’s unique changing of the clocks.