by Hilary Brumberg

To make the cafeteria a more inviting place for students, two Samsung 46 inch LED flat-screen televisions will be installed there within the next few weeks, according to Adams housemaster James D’Orazio.

The two televisions, which the administration ordered last week, will be installed above the snack bar and to the right of the right door of the College and Career Center.

Campus aides and housemasters will control the remotes. When the televisions are installed, each television will stay on one channel throughout the day, according to D’Orazio. Eventually, housemasters and campus aides might take channel suggestions from students, he said.

Last spring, the Student Faculty Administration discussed ways to turn the cafeteria into a “student union,” a space where student can spend time without roaming the halls or overcrowding the Library Learning Commons, D’Orazio said. Televisions were among the items it considered.

The administration decided to go ahead and order the televisions because it felt that the SFA needed “something to work with” before it explored more ways to make the cafeteria more inviting, he said.

Principal Jennifer Price requested that the PTSO funnel $6,000 it raised from the Bringing Down the House event it held in the spring of 2010 toward efforts to “fix up the cafeteria,” according to English teacher and librarian Kevin McGrath.

The televisions, mounts and cables totaled almost $3,000, and the SFA and the administration will decide how to spend the rest of the funding after “we see how the televisions impact students,” D’Orazio.