Portland State Vanguard, Volume 74, Issue 25

VOLUME 74 • ISSUE 25 • MARCH 31, 2020

PSU CONTINUES CAMPUS RESPONSE TO PANDEMIC

NEWS SERVICE INDUSTRY UNIONS FORM AS BUSINESSES SHUTTER • ARTS & CULTURE 5TH AVE CINEMA HOSTS PSU FOOD PANTRY 'FRIENDLY' LOAN COMPANIES SPORTSARE SPORTS AMONGFANATICISM US • DREAM PSU IN ADISCUSSES WORLD WITHOUT IMPLEMENTATION SPORTS OF DREAMER’S CENTER

CONTENTS COVER BY DANA TOWNSEND

NEWS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC SERVICE INDUSTRY UNIONS FORM AS BUSINESSES SHUTTER

P. 3

ARTS & CULTURE THE FUTURE OF 5TH AVENUE CINEMA

P. 6

CAMPUS’ RESPONSE TO COVID-19—SO FAR

P. 4

OPINION NOBODY’S GRANDMA SHOULD DIE FOR THIS

P. 7

INTERNATIONAL RUSSIA-SAUDI OIL WAR RAGES ON

P. 5

SPORTS SPORTS FANATICISM IN A WORLD WITHOUT SPORTS

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STAFF

EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Dylan Jefferies MANAGING EDITOR Hannah Welbourn NEWS EDITORS Hanna Anderson Justin Grinnell INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Chloe Dysart SPORTS EDITOR Rich Rigney ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Nick Townsend OPINION EDITOR AJ Earl

ONLINE EDITOR Annie Schutz COPY CHIEF Sophie Concannon PHO T O A ND MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Alex Wittwer MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Owen Demetre PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR John Rojas LEAD DESIGNER Dana Townsend DESIGNERS Brandon Pahnish Sam Person

DIS T RIBU TION & M A R K E TING DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGER Dylan Jefferies T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Julianna Bigelow George Olson John Rojas

A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher To contact Portland State Vanguard, email info@psuvanguard.com

MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

NEWS

DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC SERVICE INDUSTRY UNIONS FORM AS BUSINESSES SHUTTER NEWLY FORMED VOODOO DOUGHNUT UNION HOLDS SIT-IN AMID STAY-AT-HOME ORDER ALEX WITTWER Days after Governor Brown announced a state-wide stayat-home order closing all non-essential businesses, Voodoo Doughnut Workers Union (VWU) gathered to support laid-off workers collecting their final paychecks outside the shop’s Old Town location.

The sit-in came six days after Voodoo Doughnut employees announced they were unionizing on March 20, after concerns over safety at the downtown location were raised. Crime is a consistent problem for the Old Town location, which was recently robbed by a man with a hatchet. The union stated in their announcement they were “fighting hard for a living wage, severance pay, access to accrued PTO [paid time off ], hazard pay and adequate security at the Old Town location in Portland.”

“Today, in solidarity with Voodoo Doughnut Old Town workers who were laid off in the last few days, we came in to pick up our final checks,” said Katherine Nadj, a long time employee at the company. “[While] making sure to comply with CDC regulations during the COVID-19 crisis, and equipped with hand sanitizer and homemade masks, workers filed in six feet apart and one at a time.”

“We were denied access to our own personal effects we had stored in the back of the shop and were told to email the general manager. We were told the discrepancies regarding missing PTO and any other concerns should be redirected to our general manager by email.” The general manager for the Old Town location did not immediately respond when asked to comment.

UNION MEMBERS HOLD A SIGN OUTSIDE THE OLDTOWN LOCATION AS WORKERS ENTER TO COLLECT THEIR LAST PAYCHECK. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD Other service industry businesses and employees face similar challenges. Crush, a Portland LGBTQ+ bar and club, recently laid-off all 27 of its employees in preparation for its forced closure due to COVID-19, according to an article by Eater Portland. As employees were allegedly denied reimbursement of their accrued PTO and sick leave, 12 of the former employees staged a 24-hour sit-in at the bar, but were dispersed by police after an hour.

Two days after the sit-in on March 21, management at Crush provided the former employees with accrued sick time checks.

However, other demands—such as guaranteed rehiring of laidoff employees—were not met, according to the newly-formed union Crush Bar Workers Collective.

The Burgerville Workers Union (BVWU) also held a one-day strike on March 22 at the burger chain’s 92nd street location, according to an article by Eater Portland. The BVWU stated their reason for the strike in a Facebook post; “Corporate has stripped the 92nd and Powell location down to a skeleton crew, making it impossible to keep up necessary sanitary standards while working during a pandemic.”

Instacart, a service that provides proxy shopping, is also feeling pressure from workers during the pandemic. According to CNN, Instacart workers are planning a strike on March 30 over safety concerns related to COVID-19, asking for personal protective equipment and hazard pay.

“In a show of disrespect to employees, the company refused to respond to concerns of workers or even to discuss them,” stated

Samantha Bryce, a Voodoo Doughnut employee, in a Facebook post by VWU about the sit-in. “We need positive responses to our issues, and we need voluntary recognition to address our concerns at the table.”

On March 13—10 days prior to VWU’s announcement to unionize—Voodoo doughnuts management released a statement: “Our customers, employees and the communities we serve will always be our top priority.”

As responses to the COVID-19 pandemic increase pressure on the U.S. economy, workers face unprecedented uncertainty as the deadline for rent and other bills approach.

“Some businesses may be continuing to operate right now at significant losses either because they are hoping for a relatively quick return to normality, or because they are reluctant to layoff employees,” stated Rajiv Sharma, professor of economics at Portland State. “As the crisis drags on, both of those become harder to sustain. Furthermore, demand is likely to decrease more as the crisis drags on which also makes it more likely that currently operational businesses will shut down.“ According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, nationwide unemployment claims reached more than three million during the week of March 15, with 76,500 claims in Oregon alone. Of the 76,500 claims, 10,700 came from workers in the leisure and hospitality sector. However, these numbers could be higher as the U.S. Department of Labor sent out guidance for state agencies to withhold specific unemployment numbers, as per an email obtained by The New York Times.

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NEWS

COVID-19 UPDATE

OLE LATTE BAGELS, LOCATED IN PARKING STRUCTURE 1, BOARDS UP ITS WINDOWS AMIDST THE PANDEMIC. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CAMPUS RESPONSE TO COVID-19—SO FAR HANNA ANDERSON Within a few short weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic exploded with an exponential number of confirmed cases daily, affecting nearly every aspect of everyone’s lives. College life—and Portland State itself—is no exception.

After a short spring break, the PSU community will return to a dramatically different term amid an unprecedented pandemic.

The majority will not return to campus at all now that society is urged to stay at home as the best method of stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Since PSU first announced that spring term classes would be held remotely, a wave of further responses to the pandemic have followed.

CLASSES

The same day the coronavirus outbreak was named a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), PSU made the decision that no classes would be held in person at the start of spring term and would either have to be taught remotely or not at all. This is the case for the first four weeks, until the decision is reevaluated with the latest recommendations from health officials.

However, on March 18, a little over a week from the initial decision, PSU sent out a second announcement that stated remote learning would remain for the entire term.

“The coronavirus has prompted a new day-today reality for all of us,” PSU Interim President Stephen Percy stated in the announcement.

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“We have heard increasing concerns from students, faculty and staff about the uncertainty clouding the spring quarter that begins March 30...Rather than start the term with lingering questions, we are committed to devoting all of PSU’s resources and tools to sustain high-quality academic learning in this time of challenge.”

CAMPUS

Following the move to online-only classes for spring term, much of the rest of campus has followed suit.

Some of PSU’s most important and widely used departments, such as financial services and the registrar, have closed their in person operations but will continue to work with students remotely wherever possible. The office of financial services has also made changes for students, choosing not to charge students a late fee for a late payment in April, as well as extending the deadline to drop a class with a full refund by one week.

Some departments, such as Campus Rec, have chosen to close entirely. Others, such as the Branford Price Millar Library, continue to have limited in person services available— the first floor lab is still open and the library is offering home delivery services for students who need books or laptops.

The Center for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) remains open but has also changed to keep the student population safe.

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SHAC is offering phone consultations for health and mental health services, appointments for in-person care and will soon implement telehealth services.

Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP) has canceled all in-person events and meetings for spring term, which include those for all student groups and clubs. All campus events will be canceled until at least April 8, and on March 26, PSU announced that an in-person commencent for the class of 2020 would also be canceled and held virtually.

HOUSING

For students who live in student housing, remote learning for spring term only means taking classes in a different building on campus.

While University Housing and Residence Life (UHRL), like many departments, is limiting its in-person operations, student housing remains open and students are still allowed to live on campus for the duration of the term, but not without changes.

Once the announcement was made that spring classes would be held entirely remotely, UHRL gave students the option to cancel their housing for the spring term and receive a full refund. All residents who chose to remain would be required to live in a single dorm to meet the demands of social distancing, but would not be charged extra for transitioning to a single dorm.

For students leaving for either all of spring term or only spring break, Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s stay-at-home executive order complicated things, now that everyone is ordered to stay where they are to stem the spread of COVID-19. UHRL assured students with canceled contracts that their materials would be safe in their old dorms until they could retrieve it. Students who planned to return after spring break, however, were met with a warning email: Don’t.

“Due to the Oregon Governor’s Stay at Home order, if you have already left campus for spring break, you are ordered to stay where you are until the Executive Order is lifted,” UHRL stated in their email to residents, “We are looking out for your own health and the health of those who are on campus now. Please do everything you can to comply with the Oregon Governor’s Stay at Home Executive Order.“

TUITION

PSU will undoubtedly be different in spring term—but what about the amount that students pay for it?

Any changes to student charges will have to be approved by the Board of Trustees at their April 16 meeting. PSU announced on March 27 that the university would recommend a number of changes to students fees for spring, including eliminating the Campus Rec fee and reducing the student incidental and building fees. Tuition changes for the remainder of the 2020 academic year have not been proposed—however, changes to the 2021 year will be delayed.

OUTSIDE PSU

On March 26, with 81,321 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the United States officially surpassed Italy and China with the largest number of cases in the world. The majority of the U.S.’s cases are in New York, with 59,513 confirmed cases as of March 29. As of Sunday, Oregon has at least 548 cases in the state, with 13 deaths.

While the situation changes daily and organizations continue to make new decisions for the safety of their community, the advice for individuals remains the same: wash your hands, avoid touching your face, practice social distancing and stay at home as much as you can.

INTERNATIONAL

THE SAGADRIL-1, A UAE OIL RIG, OPERATES OUTSIDE OF ABU DHABI ON DECEMBER 12TH, 2014. GUILHEM VELLUT/FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS CHLOE DYSART Oil prices reached a historic price drop on March 8 as an outcome of the global coronavirus pandemic, leading to increased tensions in an ongoing oil war between Russian and Saudi Arabian oil producers.

The two countries are part of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which consists of 14 countries and was formed in 1960 to “co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries,” according to its website.

As a response to the global pandemic, the demand for oil has plummeted, with many countries placing travel restrictions on flights, as well as encouraging citizens to stay home as much as possible. The decreased demand includes China, which is the number one importer of crude oil, using approximately 10 million barrels a day according to CNN. To accommodate the decreased demand for oil, OPEC members met and discussed dropping the production of oil by approximately one million barrels a day to keep prices the same during the pandemic.

The agreement fell through when Russia objected to the idea of cutting oil supply. The combination of a decreased demand and a surplus in production resulted in Brent crude oil reaching a 17-year low below $25 a barrel, as well as a decrease in the income of oil producers, according to Al Jazeera.

Russian officials have also criticized the production cut as a way to boost the less competitive U.S. shale industry.

Approximately 80% of Saudi Arabia’s revenues are from crude oil, leading to speculation that the country will see economic hardship if it does not diversify its revenue soon. The Paris Climate Agreement pushed many countries to reduce their oil consumption out of environmental concern.

According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia plans to boost its crude output above 10 million barrels per day in April from 9.7 million barrels per day in recent months. The flooding of the oil market could be disastrous for U.S. producers, as shale companies need costs to be more than $40 a barrel to cover the costs of production.

Saudi oil company Aramco has the lowest production costs in the world, at approximately $2.8 a barrel. American shale oil, being much more expensive to produce, needs the cost of crude oil to be almost 14 times the cost of production to create a profit, according to Al Jazeera. The sudden price drop caused by the oil war has left American companies scrambling to reduce production and cut spending.

In the last several years, many American oil companies have switched to a controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing. Many critics of fracking worry about its long term effects of contaminating groundwater. Fracking has increased U.S. oil output to approximately 13 million barrels per day, making

it one of the world’s largest producers, along with Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Some U.S. industry members have expressed skepticism about the U.S. taking part in OPEC’s decision to decrease production.

“Our view is simple. Quotas are bad,” said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute. “They’ve been proven ineffective and harmful. There’s no reason during this time to try to imitate OPEC.” Energy stock prices have also taken a hit, with ExxonMobil losing more than 12%, and Chevron shares falling more than 15%.

The U.S. State Department released statements urging Saudi Arabia to not flood the market as retaliation against Russia.

“The secretary stressed that as a leader of the G20 and an important energy leader, Saudi Arabia has a real opportunity to rise to the occasion and reassure global energy and financial markets when the world faces serious economic uncertainty,” the State Department stated.

The chance of an agreement in the near future between the two countries looks bleak, as “there have been no contacts between Saudi Arabia and Russia energy ministers over any increase in the number of OPEC countries, nor any discussion of a joint agreement to balance oil markets,” according to an official from Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry.

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ARTS & CULTURE

THE FUTURE OF 5TH AVENUE CINEMA CINEMA TO BECOME NEW PSU FOOD PANTRY LOCATION

5TH AVENUE CINEMA ON MARCH 29, 2020. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

NICK TOWNSEND “Two weeks ago, we were riding a high,” said Tracy Kernell, a projectionist at 5th Avenue Cinema. “Everyone was pulling from everywhere and we were all so excited about it.”

Within days, the cinema would cancel its last week of winter screenings, and by the end of winter term, 5th Avenue Cinema had officially shut its doors for the school year.

5th Avenue Cinema is Portland State’s student-run cinema—the only one of its kind in the state. Known for showing a curated mix of cult classics like Looney Tunes’ Space Jam and harder to track down arthouse films, the space has been operated by PSU students under the direction of the Student Activities and Leadership Program since PSU acquired the building in the 1980s. The closure of in-person screenings due to COVID-19 marks a departure from the weekly screenings that many students have counted on for years.

Operated by five students, including two projectionists, the cinema receives funding through the Student Fee Committee in coordination with SALP, but is almost entirely directed from within. Madi Alexander, cinema coordinator at 5th Avenue Cinema, explained the initial decision to cancel week 10 screenings of A Brighter Summer Day was made on a day-to-day basis.

“From the start of week 10 I thought that the last screening was happening. We made our own decision to cancel it. And then I thought: Okay, we had to close this down, are we going to have to start closing things in the future?”

In an Instagram post on March 12, 5th Avenue Cinema announced it was cancelling all future in-person events until further notice. This included not just its weekend screening programs, but also all rentals of the space by outside parties, a key source of income for the cinema.

Losing their ability to present movies in person presented the team with strategic and financial issues. On March 19, the SFC sent a survey through email to all student groups asking groups to estimate losses and levels of student worker staffing for the coming term.

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“Getting the emails like, hey what’s your budget? Like, who’s not essential? and I’m like, hey it’s Tuesday and you’re giving me 24 hours to decide if we need money or not,’” Alexander said.

After cancelling all events for the next term, the 5th Avenue Cinema team began devising alternate ways of fulfilling their purpose to the PSU community.

“One thing that we’re thinking about is having Q&As through Zoom,” Kernell said. “We were in talks to have a director come to us and screen her film which obviously we can’t do now, so we’re trying to set up some kind of online function for that.”

“We’re trying to figure out how we can create accessible ways to view streams online. With the big distributors we normally work with, that’s usually really difficult.”

The 5th Avenue Cinema staff are also considering a 5th Avenue Cinema podcast. The podcast would feature the staff discussing film and would be centered around the PSU community.

“The podcast is probably one of our biggest ways to move forward with 5th avenue as a space,” Kernell said. “It would be about bridging the gap to community engagement remotely. We’re trying to engage with our student body with interactive things.”

“We’ve talked about movies being the central focus, but also stuff that people have easy access to like music videos and then we can go on the podcast and say, here’s our staff’s take on this,” Alexander said. “We’re trying to keep the idea and heart of 5th Avenue of giving people access to films that they normally wouldn’t come across in big theaters or on their own.”

Kernell expressed the direction that the podcast would take in addressing the current pandemic.

“We want to talk with our community about films that we run to when we need comfort because we think that’s something we all need right now,” Kernell said. “The heart of what cinema is is entertainment. It makes people feel better—or

sometimes worse—but it takes you away from the current moment. It’s escapism basically.”

While the 5th Avenue team makes the best of the pandemic, the physical space will not go to waste. The PSU Food Pantry, displaced by the closure of Smith and unwilling to close operations for a term, took over the 5th Avenue Cinema location as its base of operations for spring term.

Food pantry patrons will interact with volunteers at the ticket booth outside the building and be able to queue outside.

Once inside, patrons will shop in a window shopping style to reduce contact and speed.

“We’re figuring out how to keep 5th Ave. and the food pantry as separate as possible while also harmonizing in this space,” Alexander said.

Another challenge the pandemic presents is rehiring. Three of the five-member team are slated to graduate in June, leaving three positions open for applications. Without a physical space to screen films, the job descriptions of the staff positions have changed.

“All the positions have co-mingled,” Kernell said. “I’m a projectionist, but now I’m co-hosting a podcast. So pitching that position to outside people is going to be difficult because it’s like, you project film! But not right now. But as long as you have that core interest in film that’s all you need.”

Alexander and Kernell, the only two staff members returning to 5th Avenue Cinema next year, both expressed cautious optimism about the future of the space.

“There’s a couple films where we’ve already gotten emails from the distributor asking us to reschedule for later this year,” Alexander said. “I think people understand that things are not our fault. Fingers crossed for the summer, but if not then the fall.”

“There’s new news every day, but we’re hoping to be able to open our doors again, nothing against what we’re doing now, but to be able to present films to people like we used to.”

OPINION

BRANDON PAHNISH AJ EARL The Coronavirus pandemic is days old, not even long enough to have its age listed as weeks since it went from local to global, and yet the worst of society is coming out as we speak. From Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick to The Federalist, an increasing chorus of “get back to work” has begun to mingle with a grim acceptance that this would mean many people, mostly elderly, are likely to die in order to preserve economic normalcy.

It goes without saying that nobody’s grandma, not even those willing to die, should be sacrificed for the race toward profit.

That we are here lifting this up as the difficult decision rather than buckling down, gritting our teeth and soldiering through a widespread lockdown, is an indictment of the greed of the American people. It’s certainly true that most Americans are not interested in sentencing their Nanas and Pop-Popses to a slow, wheezing death on a waiting list for a ventilator, but the will to incentivize staying home is practically nonexistent. Exasperated governors are being forced to beg people to limit their outside time to a walk around the block while federal funding for essential selfsupport like unemployment payments is dreadfully low.

In a perfect world, proposals like those by Rep. Ilhan Omar to mint a trillion-dollar coin or three for things like student debt forgiveness, expansion of healthcare and universal monthly payments would be an obvious solution. Instead, even Democrats are using this crisis to further bash Medicare for All and its supporters while offering meanstested support for voters that absolutely nobody is asking them to offer. Senator Schumer and Majority Leader Pelosi could be saying a monthly payment of untaxed money to everyone, equally, could be offered if states would simply have people stay home for a few weeks.

The voter support would push such a measure through, naturally.

Unfortunately, Schumer, whose state has a political structure governed by corporations, and Pelosi, who has spent her career enforcing moderation and centrism, have both closed the door to aggressive and broad intervention.

Instead, large parts of the country are neither testing nor limiting public interactions in a meaningful way. The simmering public health crisis underlying this inaction will absolutely make the United States the epicenter of this pandemic, but nobody wants to risk the appearance of socialism.

Instead, President Donald Trump, whose bumbling has helped nobody, appears far more decisive and presidential, as the vast majority of Americans—not infected, and knowing nobody who has caught the virus yet—feel they will remain untouched. Instead of working to confront the health crisis, politicians are more focused on their own political crisis. In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown has shown little will to act, issuing modest statements that dithered around shelter in place measures that did not go into effect until well after thousands mingled in now-closed state parks. It is demonstrably false that this will blow over by just telling folks to not use the Target bathroom and to spread out like they’re on a playground.

This pandemic is going to kill your grandparents and many of your friends if we don’t accept that the only way we can really, truly stop it, is to stay inside for a few weeks. This could be staggered and cycled, but even that is better than the non-effort being undertaken today. Making some stay home and others work in an extremely arbitrary temporary economy of essential and nonessential workplaces is going to cause a scenario where non-medical workers are infecting the public for days until

they themselves come down with COVID-19.

Essential services should rightly be limited to public health, safety and core infrastructure like mail.

If states had better support infrastructure, it would be possible to have the United States Postal Service and companies like UPS deliver food support to homes while allowing beleaguered healthcare workers to better limit their exposure to nonessential interactions. Instead, the houseless are left without support centers, foods covered by WIC are selling out before the parents who use the service can purchase necessary but government-limited sustenance and folks are convinced that it’s fine to go to the grocery store every few days to cover up for the fact that grocers and their workers are financially unmoored in this economy.

And yet, nobody’s grandma should have to die as a result of this lack of preparedness.

Aggressive action is needed and hard conversations are meant to be had. None of them should judge people on their worth and none of the talk should be how to keep the poor from getting financial support that has been arbitrarily deemed unnecessary. This isn’t going away any time soon, the time for action is now.

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SPORTS

SPORTS FANATICISM IN A WORLD

WITHOUT

SPORTS

RICH RIGNEY

It’s been just under three weeks since the last major sporting event was held in the United States. But to some, it may already feel like an eternity. The sudden eradication of sports has left fans and athletes alike feeling lost with no outlet to turn to.

Optimistic estimates put the timetable for a return to most major sports somewhere around mid-June. With more and more sporting events being canceled each day, it’s time to consider what a world without major sports might look like, and how those who eat, sleep and breathe sports each day can navigate what’s become the new normal.

What does a sports fanatic do when the sports they are devoted to disappear?

There have already been some creative solutions implemented to fill the void many are feeling. From betting on weather forecasts to competitive marble racing, anything that can become competitive has done so.

For those not quite ready to expand their sports spectatorship to precipitation and jockeying marbles, esports have served as a welcome alternative to the physical competition of traditional professional sports.

Sports video games like Madden NFL and NBA 2K have always been popular, but their ability to offer a realistic simulation of professional sports has garnered increased appreciation in the wake of COVID-19. Fans can spectate or grab the sticks themselves with the familiar—albeit digital—faces of their favorite athletes and teams. The most impor-

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tant aspect remains the same: competition without a predetermined outcome.

With the NBA season abruptly suspended with fewer than 20 regular-season games remaining, NBA 2K began simulating the results of games that would have been played each day, allowing fans to follow along with the simulated results of each game.

Typically, one game from each day will be played out on the streaming platform Twitch, where fans can follow along in real time as NBA 2K games are played. During these streamed matches, both teams are typically helmed by celebrities—rappers, professional NBA players, professional NBA 2K players— which allows fans to see and hear the celebrities as they compete in games. Whether it’s trash talk, elation or just some in-game banter, it’s all accessible to the audience instantly.

In a somewhat unique way to bridge the gap between professional sports and video games, NASCAR partnered with iRacing to hold a virtual race featuring actual NASCAR drivers controlling their own cars and characters. The race—run on the Homestead-Miami Speedway, where NASCAR was scheduled to have a race before the COVID-19 cancellations—featured a number of NASCAR’s biggest stars and was televised on Fox Sports 1 with live commentary.

The race was won by three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who was involved in iRacing long before he made the jump to professional NASCAR driving. Prior to the

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BRANDON PAHNISH race, Hamlin said he would donate $5,000 to Miami families affected by COVID-19 if he won, with NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick offering to match the pledge. This race was the first event of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series. The next race will be held March 29.

Within the world of esports gaming, traditional sports like football, basketball, baseball and soccer are just a small part of the online gaming community. Esports have surged forward as a form of entertainment and a profitable industry over the last few years.

League of Legends, arguably the most popular esport in the world, had more than 100 million viewers for its 2019 World Championship. The NBA 2K League—a professional online gaming league where users can create their own player and compete on a team in a regular season and playoffs similar to that of the NBA—has seen continuous growth since its inauguration in 2017.

Currently sitting at 21 teams, the league hopes to secure an NBA 2K League affiliate for all 30 NBA teams in the near future. The total prize money to be awarded throughout the 2020 NBA 2K League season, which is currently postponed from its March 24 opening date, is set at $1.4 million.

Esports aren’t exempt from cancellations due to COVID-19, however. Several esports leagues have been forced to postpone in-person events in order to adhere to government regulations on social distancing. Luckily, for a sport with an entirely digital platform, most esport leagues have already begun adapting their tournaments and events to become online-only, with players competing from their homes or safe spaces.

If fully devoting oneself to a world of digital sports competition and finding new teams and players to root for feels too drastic an upheaval, perhaps a more gradual transition into esports fandom is the better option.

Plenty of casual streamers provide content from the safety of their homes for sports fans’ viewing pleasure, with a focus on shenanigans and fun, rather than competition.

A nice way to bridge the gap between the sporting world and the world of gaming is by watching professional athletes who stream their online gaming.

Even prior to the worldwide sports cancellations, plenty of pro athletes were streaming in their free time as a way to wind down and step away from the sport they compete in for a living. Now, with little else to do, a number of athletes have taken to streaming as a way to stay connected with fans and other players.

These streaming events allow fans to connect with players outside the traditional realm of sports, providing a chance to see the competitive edge of their favorite players in action and an opportunity to interact with them off the court as well.

Finally, if nothing will compare to those good old fashion gridiron and hardwood battles, fear not. The NBA and NFL are both currently offering their League Pass and Game Pass subscriptions for free to the public amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The subscriptions offer a 24/7 cycle of league news, documentaries and throwback games from years past.

It’s been a difficult past few weeks in the world of sports for everyone from league commissioners to athletes and the journalists who cover them, to the hourly workers who depend on the income these sports provide.

One must remember during these times that a pause in professional sports is a small sacrifice to ensure the well-being of everyone. In the meantime, it may be the perfect opportunity to broaden horizons and explore new things. Follow a new streamer on Twitch, organize some marble racing in the backyard; whatever the activity may be, do it with the safety of yourself and others in mind.