Columbiana Collection
The Sundial, 1914 The Sundial on College 'Valk is known today as a convenient meeting place, a pulpit for student evangelists of all stripes, and a launching pad for campus protests. '''hat is less well known is that something else stood atop the fiat, round podium until 1946, before most of today's undergraduate orators were born. For 32 years a 15-ton, 7-foot, granite "Sunball" conducted a silent filibuster there. On the surviving pedestal of the Sundial is an ominous prophesy: Horam expecta veniet ("Await the hour, it will come"). The hour came for the Sunball on December 12, 1946, when University officials, fearing that two thin cracks in the large ball would split it into malevolent chunks, removed it. It was rudely retired to a Bronx stoneyard. "Columbia Junks Famous Sundial" headlined the New York Times. Spectator editorialized: "Somehow, we never attached any sentimentality to the globular mass. None of us are astronomy majors, and we never could quite figure out what time it was by referring to the dial." The Sundial was a gift of the College's Class of 1885 to Columbia on the occasion of its 25th reunion. It was designed by a member of the class, astronomy professor Harold Jacoby '85. The sunball served as a stylus for the timepiece that was accurate only one minute a day-at 12
Anyway, Rudd and the group of nearly 200 SDS members and sympathizers went into a caucus about Dr. Truman's proposal to meet with them in Mc:\IiIIin. While 400 onlookers watched and listened, a swift, confused exchange took place about what tactics to use next. One student thought SDS should go to McMillin and demand that SPRING, 1968
noon. The noon hom was marked by the sphere casting its shadow on the bronze plates that are still present on the pedestal, and by notches on the plates corresponding to the days of the year. The Fortnightly Bulletin of Columbia's Institute of Arts and Sciences said on ~larch 26, 1915, "This is the only sundial of its kind in the world, and the granite ball used as the dial is the largest ball in the world turned from one piece of stone." Originally the Class of 1885 proposed that the Sundial be placed smack in the center of 116th Street, the predecessor to College Walk. IVlanhattan political officials would not allow it because they felt it would be a hazard to the "fast-moving" traffic of 1910. University comptroller Frederick Goetze '95 suggested the present site, where he felt the Sundial "would be equally conspicuous and equally free from any danger of being overshadowed by adjacent buildings." The Sundial was built atop the steps next to South Field, then an athletic field used for the College's football, baseball, and other games. It was offiCially presented to the University on May 26, 1914, at a large ceremony attended by professors, administrators, the Class of 1885 in academic dress, leading citizens, and numerous ladies in the finery of the day.
Truman let "the students" decide the fate of "the IDA six" instead of Dean Platt. Rudd himself suggested that if SDS met with Truman it ought to be on their terms, with chanting and discussion of demands that they wanted. A student quickly agreed, "We should tell Truman what we want to do." Another said he thought that "no deals, no
compromises" should be made. Suddenly, one person shouted, "What about the plan to grab Low?" With that, a student dressed in a denim suit and sporting a red bandana jumped up on the Sundial. He was Tom Hurwitz, a College junior currently making a film on the hippies. Hurwitz said, "Yeah, let's go to Low." Whereupon the crowd of
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