Many on the Brandeis campus are unaware that a massive bell, a piece of the University's history, sits unassumingly on the Castle overlook. Until members of the class of 1980 visited campus last weekend and dedicated the bell as their 25th reunion class gift, the bell hadn't been rung in decades. The Usen Castle Bell was rededicated last Sunday morning in an emotional ceremony.

"[The bell is] an important link to our treasured past," University Archivist Karen Adler Abramson '85 said at the dedication.

During Brandeis' early years, students rang the bell on special occasions, such as following athletic victories, Jay Mandel '80, a member of his class' reunion committee, said.

But by the time Mandel arrived on campus, the bell had never rung and was deteriorated from lack of use, he said in a phone interview last Tuesday

During a recent campus visit, Mandel said he noticed the bell was still being ignored.

Mandel suggested his class restore the bell as a gift to the University.

"[It] is larger than me, my class and all of us. . It represents pioneers of Brandeis who walked an uncharted journey," he said.

The bell is dedicated to the memory of members of the class of 1980 who have passed away, Mandel said at the dedication.

Mandel concluded the ceremony by ringing the bell.

The Henry N. Hooper Foundry cast the bell in 1868, Mandel said. The Foundry was headed by Hooper, a protg of Paul Revere, who cast bells for sites throughout Boston including the well-known Arlington Street Church.