Its current 61-bell carillon, built around a nucleus of 12 bells also given by Jane Sather, can be heard for many miles and supports an extensive program of education in campanology.

Sather Tower also houses many of the Department of Integrative Biology's fossils (mainly from the La Brea Tar Pits) because its cool, dry interior is suited for their preservation.

[4] Designed by John Galen Howard, founder of the Department of Architecture at the university, Sather Tower was completed in 1915 and opened to the public in 1916.

During the Fall and Spring semesters, the carillon is performed for ten minutes at 7:50 a.m., noon, and 6:00 p.m. during weekdays, from 12:00–12:15 p.m. and 6:00–6:10 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 2:00–2:45 p.m. on Sundays and intermittently at other times of the year.

An elevator takes visitors 200 feet (61 m) up to an observation deck with sweeping views of the campus, the surrounding hills, San Francisco, and the Golden Gate.

[7] The trumpets of the California Marching Band every year play Cal spirit songs during Big Game week from the top of the tower.

The surrounding promenade features a grid of pollarded London Plane trees, frequently enjoyed for the sport of slacklining.

The original bells were installed in 1917 and played for the first time on November 3, 1917, to mark California's Big Game against Washington.

The delay between the founding and the installation of the bells was caused by World War I, as well as the US Customs Service in San Francisco.

The original bells all bear the inscription "Gift of Jane K. Sather 1914," acknowledging the benefactress for whom the Tower is named.

The largest of the original bells bears an inscription by Isaac Flagg, Professor of Greek, emeritus, "We ring, we chime, we toll, / Lend ye the silent part / Some answer in the heart, / Some echo in the soul."