Ringing True at New Campus

It is the symbol of Cal State Channel Islands, a Mission-style bell tower standing at the heart of the Camarillo campus and crowned with a turreted dome. Its likeness is stamped on everything important to the new university, from its logo to its first course catalog.

But the sun-bleached structure has never made a sound. It has been a bell tower without a bell, rising five stories but shrouded in silence for more than 70 years. Now that is about to change.

With a $15,000 donation from a prominent Ventura County ranch family, the muted campanile is finally getting a voice to match its presence.

Last week, engineers installed a high-tech carillon system in the 1930s-era tower, an electronically amplified network of hand-tuned miniature bells that will be able to chime the hour, ring in the start of classes or simply flood the sprawling campus with glorious sound.

The bell system will be unveiled Friday at the university’s grand opening and will provide a steady heartbeat for campus life when the school opens to students in two weeks at the former Camarillo State Hospital complex.

“We thought that was exactly what was needed at Channel Islands to give it that campus atmosphere,” said Carolyn Leavens, a longtime university supporter whose extended ranch family provided the melodic gift.

The names of the senior family members--Leavens’ husband, Paul, and his sisters, Mary Leavens Schwabauer, Dorothy Leavens Carlson and Sarah Leavens Gilmour--will be emblazoned on a plaque at the foot of the bell tower.

“It’s just such a great ambience builder,” said Leslie Leavens-Crowe, a partner in the ranch business and the daughter of Paul and Carolyn Leavens. “It’s such a unique opportunity and our family is so pleased to be a part of it.”

Channel Islands is tapping a tradition that dates back hundreds of years at some of America’s oldest universities. In many places, the bell tower is a focus of campus life. The Campanile at UC Berkeley has been a landmark since 1914. The structure, nearly as tall as London’s Big Ben and visible from the Golden Gate Bridge, is a gathering place for students lamenting the approach of final exams or gearing up for the big game, Cal’s annual football match-up with rival Stanford.

Several Cal State campuses also have bell-ringing traditions. Sonoma State has a three-story clock tower, and at San Diego State there is a 150-foot campanile, a former water tower converted nearly 60 years ago into the home of a 100-bell symphony.

The idea to wire Cal State Channel Islands’ tower for sound came to university supporters a couple of months ago, during a planning meeting for the opening event.

The meeting was held on the quad in the shadow of the tower, built in the 1930s along with the rest of the state hospital as part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration program.

“We just thought here’s this visual icon, the central hub of the university, and up to now it hasn’t been able to mark time, make announcements or call the university family together,” said Alma Gonzalez, vice president for university advancement. “Basically what we wanted to be able to do is bring life to this historic structure.”

After researching various systems and their costs, university officials set out to look for money. They didn’t have to look any further than the Leavens family, which has been farming in Ventura County for half a century.

The family’s donation covered the cost of purchasing and installing the bell system and a $2,000 endowment for maintenance.

“Without the help of people like the Leavenses, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Pat Richards, chairwoman of the university’s fund-raising foundation.

The sound system was manufactured by Maas-Rowe Carillons Inc., an Escondido-based company that got its start in Los Angeles in 1922 building pipe organs and cathedral chimes.

The company has installed its systems in thousands of churches, city halls and colleges--including UCLA, USC and Pepperdine University.

The Channel Islands system uses 15 miniature bells, about 3 feet long and the size of chimes in a grandfather clock. The bells are struck by electronic impulses, and the tones they generate are amplified millions of times to simulate the sound of larger bells.

The system also comes with a 25-disc CD player, which will play hymns or other music recorded from a 246-bell carillon at the company’s Escondido studio.

One of the recorded songs will be Cal State Channel Islands’ alma mater, penned by Ted Lucas, executive assistant to the university president. Lucas, who has a doctorate in music from the University of Illinois, said he was honored to be asked to write the song and is looking forward to hearing it ring out for the first time on Friday.

“It makes it feel like a real university by having a carillon in place,” Lucas said.

The Leavens family thinks so, too.

Carolyn and Paul Leavens attended their 50th class reunion this summer at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., and were moved as they listened to the tones floating from the campus campanile. They talked then about how nice it would be if the bell tower at Cal State Channel Islands could set the same mood.

Little did they know that plans were being laid at that time to make it happen or that they would be asked to play a key part.

“I am really thrilled that the family name will be at the campus in perpetuity,” Carolyn Leavens said. “It is a lovely opportunity to be a permanent part of that wonderful university.”