Behind tiers of scaffolding, McGraw Tower’s clock normally shines white, but every so often, circles of orange, green or red glow from its faces.
Up its 161 steps, the clocktower houses the Cornell Chimes. The Chimesmasters, a small group of students who play daily concerts, light the different faces of the clocktower for five occasions throughout the year — Homecoming, Halloween, Veterans Day, Valentine’s Day and Dragon Day.
Head Chimesmaster Aidan McNay ’24, now pursuing a master of engineering, described the tower’s holiday colors as “small sparks of wonder” on campus.
“We hope to provide a little bit more excitement and spirit to the student body as a whole,” McNay said. “It’s easy to lose track of special occasions with the many tasks that Cornell students have to juggle, so the colors can help serve as a reminder to take a break and connect with the friends and Cornell family around you.”
Lighting the clock faces also inspires joy inside the tower. The Chimesmasters work together to decorate the inside of the tower for holidays and often light the clock faces as a group. While the role of lighting the clock faces normally falls upon the head chimesmaster, McNay said that it is fun to include everyone in the room.
Pumpkins in the Sky
On Halloween, the clock faces wear costumes of their own. The Chimesmasters use LED lights to transform the faces into orange jack-o’-lanterns that loom over the campus.
The tradition of turning McGraw Tower’s clock face into a pumpkin began in 1964, according to current Chimes Advisor and former chimesmaster Jennifer Lory-Moran ’96 M.A.T. ’97.
Former chimesmaster Bob Feldman ’66 Ph.D. ’75 began the spooky practice with theatrical gelatin and cardboard. After using the gelatin to turn the clock faces’ incandescent bulbs orange, Lory-Moran said Feldman added large cardboard eyes and mouths for the “full jack-o’-lantern effect.”
Feldman’s innovation led to the creation of new traditions for other holidays. After lighting the faces for Halloween, Lory-Moran said the Chimesmasters started lighting the clock faces green for Dragon Day.
In 2015, the Chimesmasters installed LED lights that allow them to light the clock faces any color and expand to other holidays.
‘Small, but Important’ Symbol for Veterans
In 2016, the Chimesmasters changed the clock face colors on Veterans Day for the first time.
Cornell changed McGraw Tower’s lighting policy to include Veterans Day after David Outlaw-Batista ’17, co-founder and former president of the Cornell Undergraduate Veterans Association and a U.S. Navy veteran, requested that they honor the country’s veterans.
Originally, Cornell Chimes denied the request, according to Outlaw-Batista’s 2016 Letter to the Editor, but CUVA and other students worked with administrators to change the policy. Outlaw-Batista said he “respects the process [they] went through and [he is] happy with the result.”
Outlaw-Batista and CUVA made this request as a part of the “Greenlight A Vet” initiative. The initiative encourages community members to display green lights around their homes to show veterans that they are welcomed and acknowledged, Outlaw-Batista said.
“That inner saboteur after you get out of the military tells you [that] you don’t belong in a prestigious university,” Outlaw-Batista said. “Hopefully [the lights] give [veterans on campus] a little bit of hope that they are valued within the Cornell community.”
Now, every year on Veterans Day, the clock shines green from the landmark on campus.
“I still check every year to make sure they’re doing it,” Outlaw-Batista said. “I hope that it continues because it’s a small, but important symbol to let veterans know that they do matter.”
Community Connections
For the Chimesmasters, filling passersby’s “ordinary evenings” with color and maintaining tradition for many generations of Cornellians is powerful, McNay said.
American Studies lecturer and de facto Cornell historian Corey Ryan Earle ’07 described the changing of the clock’s face to be an important campus tradition.
“[The clock face colors tradition] is a small thing that brings some joy and playfulness to the Cornell community, … [and traditions like this] can help humanize the institution,” Earle said.
Since 1964, the decades-old lighting tradition has “brightened the day” of generations of Cornell students, McNay said. He hopes that by continuing, the clock faces foster more connections on campus.
“Real life moves fast, and it’s easy to lose track of the people around you,” McNay said. “At the very least, [the colors are] an excuse to text those friends you haven’t talked to in a while and say, ‘Hey, look at the tower — it’s green!’”