Last week, I almost tripped in the Usdan Café when I found an unexpected cardboard box blocking the way from the Boulevard to the Provisions on Demand Market. Upon closer examination, I saw that the mysterious object was not just a piece of trash mocking me for texting when I should have been paying attention to where I was walking. Instead, it was a plasma television being installed right outside the Usdan game room. I could barely contain my excitement. Finally, I thought, I would be able to watch a Phillies game during dinner or have The Today Show on in the background while I read The New York Times and ate my breakfast. This was going to be great.Imagine my surprise, then, when the next morning I was greeted not by some witty banter between Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera but by . a piece of fish. Sure, the fish looked tasty and everything, but what was it doing there? I waited for what I could only imagine was some kind of screen saver to go away and for the regularly scheduled programming to resume, but I have since come to learn that the plasma television, along with those just like it in the Boulevard, Sherman Dining Hall, and the P.O.D. Market are just there to show us pictures of food and remind us that our meals are "fresh."

I've been really happy with Dining Services this past year. There has been a greater variety of food available, lines have been shorter, and having the P.O.D. Market open early on weekends has been nice. But the fact that not one, not two, but four plasma televisions were installed to leave on all day and advertise Aramark's food-food that, to my knowledge, is nowhere to be found at Brandeis-has me feeling miffed.

First of all, what happened to all of this talk about sustainability? I can't say that I know how much energy it takes to power one of those screens, but I'm fairly confident in asserting that those watts could be put to better use elsewhere. Yesterday morning, I passed through the Boulevard, where no students were sitting, and saw that the television was showing a bunch of empty chairs a picture of "home-made" macaroni and cheese.

I know that, as students, we aren't paying for these TVs, and maybe the energy they use isn't all that much, but still-it's unnecessary and wasteful. It would be one thing to have televisions installed that we would actually watch; I, for one, wouldn't mind having some entertainment while I'm waiting for my friends to get to Sherman. However, it's another story entirely when these screens are constantly on with virtually nobody watching them.

That brings me to my next point: Why is Aramark using these locations for their advertisements? What new audience could they possibly be reaching? If I'm in a dining hall, chances are that I have already decided that I am going to get some food. The fact that there are some pictures of ambiguous meat and artfully seasoned potatoes isn't convincing me that my turkey sandwich is delicious. If anything, it's depressing to see pictures of gourmet cuisine and compare it with what is actually available. I happen to like the food at Usdan-I may be addicted to those lettuce wraps-but it doesn't come close to resembling the food in those ads. Maybe somewhere deep down in my psyche, these advertisements are making me love my turkey sandwich more, but I have yet to realize it.

The vast majority of us don't have the ability to choose whether we are going to eat Aramark food or not. If you're regularly seeing those enticing pictures, you're probably on a meal plan. And if that's the case, you probably have to have a meal plan whether you want to or not. When customers have no choice but to buy a product, advertising it doesn't make a difference. I'm just not really sure what purpose these televisions could fulfill. I understand that there are plenty of people who eat on campus who don't have a meal plan, and maybe these televisions are geared toward them. But if they are placed in locations where a person would only go after having made the decision to buy food, what is the point?

If it's Aramark's goal to encourage students to consume more food, though, I question the logic of putting a TV in Sherman. If a person is seeing that advertisement, he or she has already paid the all-you-can-eat fee to get in the door. Why, then, is he or she being enticed to eat more? I'm not an Economics major, but I don't think this makes sense financially. Convincing students to eat more than they would otherwise when there is no money to be gained from doing so doesn't help Aramark. If anything, it's just a waste of resources.

All in all, these televisions just seem impractical. There are better ways to get students and other members of the Brandeis community to spend more time and money in the dining halls; improving food quality, increasing hours and adding variety would all be tangible changes that would make eating here more enjoyable. Or maybe those TVs could show The Today Show instead of an endless loop of food pictures-I know I would be more likely to stick around if that were the case.