As the first month of the semester wraps up and we begin to take stock of our time here so far, there are a few things happening at Brandeis that are tough to miss. 

One need only swipe into one of our University’s dining halls to understand that there are problems. In both Sherman and Usdan dining halls, the dishwashers are broken, resulting in students’ increased use of disposable utensils and plates, as well as necessitating a Brandeis Hospitality staff member be stationed next to the stagnant dishwashers. These staff members are there to monitor our proper disposal of paper plates in the Sherman Dining Hall, and bus our dirty dishes for us in Usdan. But if the University is going to the effort to post an employee to oversee dish disposal, it begs the question, why have they failed to prioritize fixing these dishwashers? Especially considering Sherman’s dishwasher has been broken since the semester began.

Of course, it runs deeper than that. Students with Celiac disease and other food allergies have noticed that Brandeis has begun to remove gluten-free food options from the dining halls, leaving these students to rely heavily on the “allgood” station’s selection of bland, less-than-nutritious foods. This Editorial Board knows of some students who have turned to risking cross-contamination by eating food from the other stations in efforts to simply eat something that they actually want. For many of these students, there are no options other than the dining hall, as many describe experiences of being denied accommodations to have a kitchen or a more-limited meal plan by the University. While it seems that The Hive at Usdan has heeded student complaints and brought back their gluten-free chip options, further actions need to be taken. Overall, it is clear that Brandeis’ dining options are not as accessible as they should be, and that cutting allergy-friendly food options is a misguided way to balance the University’s finances. These students need to eat, and not being able to provide options for them demonstrates an ignorance on Brandeis’ part towards their daily student experiences. 

Of course, this is not the only example of an incomprehensible financial decision on the University’s part. After all, most students will have noticed by now that Brandeis has recently purchased a couple of “Oscar Sort” recycling assistants to help students sort their trash into the bins for compost, recycling or landfill. This technology is finally out of training mode and has become operational, though it leaves members of this editorial board wondering if the between $10,000 and $15,000 each “Oscar Sort” costs was really worth it — are recycling cameras more valuable than accessible dining and fixing key mechanisms that our community members rely on? After all, each garbage bin already has a poster taped to it that clearly articulates which items go where, and it is not financially feasible to purchase an “Oscar Sort” to station by every single garbage bin on campus if this is the University’s intent. What makes the posters sufficient in some locations but not in others? Based on this Editorial Board’s usage of it so far, the technology has proven to be frustrating, if not wholly untrustworthy at properly sorting trash.

This of course is accompanied by a total lack of access to information about what and how Brandeis recycles. A search for information about recycling leads one fruitlessly hopping across hyperlinks through various department websites — likely because information has not been updated since the closing of the Office of Sustainability in the summer of 2024. However, the one place where recycling is mentioned, namely the Department of Environmental Health and Safety website, does not list plastic among the items the University recycles. This begs the question — do all the plastic cups that Oscar instructs us to place in the blue bin even end up recycled? Or better yet, does the miniscule impact of maybe-recycling that “Oscar Sort” is helping our campus accomplish even balance out the harmful environmental effects of employing artificial intelligence technology at all? 

It is unclear where in the University’s budget this technology’s funding comes from — though it is listed as a Brandeis Hospitality Sustainability Initiative. While Brandeis Hospitality’s attempts at improving and innovating on-campus sustainability are admirable and important, we are frankly lost at the decision-making that seemingly placed this initiative over accessible dining. Recycling, after all, ranks pretty low in effectiveness as a climate solution in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions as described in the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2022 report, though its impact is constantly over-emphasized. It is hard to look at the current state of Brandeis and not see this as an overcompensation for the missing sustainability office and other actions around our campus.