But unlike other campuses, BYU-I has no bell tower. The source of the music has been a complete mystery for some of BYU-I’s newer students. The answer is at the top of the Manwaring Center, but what students would find up there might not be quite what they expected.

“There are no bells,” said Randy Parkinson, associate director of the MC. “The bells are digital recordings that are sent through a speaker system on top of the MC.”

The bells are set up to play music 10 minutes before every hour from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Made from recordings of real bells, the digital system plays a mix of Latter-day Saint hymns and Broadway show tunes.

However Parkinson said the school has the equipment to record any song a person could play. “If we had someone that the Music Department felt could do it well, we would try it,” Parkinson said.

Around the holidays, the bells will play Christmas music, and during the summer they play patriotic music. But to some, the songs on the regular schedule are not varied enough.

“I think the songs are repetitive,” said Lee-Ann Thigpin, a freshman from Hanford, Calif. “But it’s a nice touch as you leave class to have some music as you go.”

“Bells have been heard on campus since the 1970s,” Parkinson said. But at that time, the system was on cassette tape recordings. The digital system has been in place since 1998.

During the changeover, the bells were not played for a few weeks, and students and community missed the hourly carols.

“We received a letter from a woman in the community that said she was so happy to hear the bells again. It was a rare letter, as we don’t hear much about the bells from the students or community,” Parkinson said.