Clock tower proposal

“Hey mom, guess who just got engaged?” Rachel Stern, 20, asked her mother excitedly over the phone.
Just moments before, her boyfriend of almost three years, Yitzchak Lockerman, 23, dropped down on one knee and proposed to her with a single rose in hand.
The June 30 proposal took place in the clock tower of Queens College’s Rosenthal Library, an off limits area to college students.
Lockerman graduated from Queens College in 2009 as a Goldwater Scholar and Stern still attends the college. They both met at the college’s Hillel chapter.
Stern was told to go to the clock tower for a campus publication photo.
At first, Stern thought it was Lockerman’s doing but quickly doubted her assumption.
“[I thought] there is no way he could have managed to arrange this,” she said.
Lockerman received special permission from college officials to use the space for the surprise proposal. A team of college administrators, security officers, and buildings and grounds crewmembers worked behind the scenes for days to arrangement a smooth delivery.
Lockerman hid at the top of the clock tower staircase and waited in anticipation for Stern.
“It’s a place we’ve always wanted to see,” said Lockerman about the clock tower.
“We are so appreciative to the school that has not only served as our college but our home away from home,” said Stern, grateful for the kind gesture the college made in letting the proposal be in an off limits area.
Stern, majoring in political science and psychology, expects to graduate Queens College in 2012. She is a resident advisor of Summit Hall, a school residence hall, and has served as a public relations co-chairman on the Queens College Chabad E-Board.
Lockerman is now at Yale on full scholarship attaining a Ph.D. in computer science. In Queens College, Lockerman served on the Queens College Chabad E-Board as treasurer.
“It was charming, romantic, and just lovely,” said Joseph Bertolino, the Queens College vice president for enrollment management and student affairs. “Today was another example of how all of us, in every department, make a difference in the lives of our students.”