Columbia University sundial

[4] Originally planned by McKim, Mead & White to be purely ornamental, astronomy professor Harold Jacoby suggested that it be presented on behalf of the class of 1885 as a sundial, as a gift that would both be aesthetically pleasing as well as "possess a distinct educational value".

[7] A plaster model of the sundial was presented to the university by the class of 1885 in June 1910 to mark its 25th anniversary, and construction on the actual monument began shortly thereafter.

The university attempted to hold the sphere together, first by inserting a bronze rod into it and then with an "unsightly iron band",[4] before erecting a chicken-wire fence around the sundial and removing it altogether in December 1946.

[3][5] Efforts have been made by students to recover the Sunball, though concerns around costs as well as the wish to preserve the bare pedestal's role as a "free speech corner" on campus have prevented its return.

[5][14] Notably, the Columbia University protests of 1968 began at the sundial, where Mark Rudd addressed several hundred students at a rally on April 23, 1968, before they marched up to Low Memorial Library and occupied Hamilton Hall.

[9] The strange functionality of the sundial was often a subject of student confusion; a 1932 article in the Columbia Daily Spectator quipped that the only way to actually tell the time using it was to "stand on the pedestal and look over at the clock between Hartley and Livingston [Wallach Hall]".