Harvey Helfand

Should the Campanile clock malfunction, look only 100 feet south of the tower to check the time—that is, on a sunny day. There stands a bronze sundial atop an elegant white marble pedestal, compliments of the Class of 1877.

Installed in 1915, it was designed by architect Clinton Day, known for his early campus buildings at Berkeley and Stanford, Victorian mansions, and commercial architecture, including downtown Berkeley's historic Golden Sheaf Bakery. Day's Class of 1868 was the last of the university's predecessor, College of California, whose founders included his father, engineer and state senator Sherman Day (son of Yale president Jeremiah Day).

The sundial raised expectations "that timepieces can be set from it with absolute accuracy." But in 1923, astronomy faculty corrected it for latitude and added engraved conversions to Standard Pacific Time. The Engineering Class of 1996 funded a later renovation.