Portland State Vanguard Volume 78 Issue 12 by Portland State Vanguard

VOLUME 78 • ISSUE 12 • OCTOBER 19, 2023

NATIVE VOICES

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DAY AND MORE Science: PCRM protests OHSU's animal research and training P. 6–7 News: PSU Food Pantry expansion, potential renaming and more P. 8 Sports: PSU’s Gaming club is expanding online and in person P. 10

P. 4-5

LL AT A R O F N M U L O C FORM T A L P N O I N I P O N /PSU OPE ME AND AFFILIATION W

PSU

• STATE NA CHOSEN BY THE EDITOR D AN ED TE AN AR GU T PAID, NO @PSUVANGUARD.COM OR • SUBMISSIONS ARE UN IT ED TO NS IO IN OP ORIES AND • SEND THOUGHTS, ST

CONTENTS

COVER DESIGN BY WHITNEY McPHIE PHOTO BY ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI

ARTS & CULTURE Native perspectives on Indigenous Peoples’ Day

P. 4–5

SPORTS Virtual sports

P. 10

SCIENCE & TECH Vegan doctors versus science

P.6–7

OPINION No more cars

P. 11

COMMUNITY & WELLNESS RESOURCES Updated weekly

P. 12

NEWS PSU food pantry serves 2,000 students daily News crossword

P.8 P. 9

STAFF EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Kat Leon MANAGING EDITOR Brad Le NEWS EDITOR Zoë Buhrmaster CO-NEWS EDITOR Alyssa Anderson ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Macie Harreld SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR Cameron Rodriguez SPORTS EDITOR Laura Kowall

OPINION EDITOR Nick Gatlin PHOTO EDITOR Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani ONLINE AND PROMOTIONS EDITOR Alley Henrici COPY CHIEF Isabel Zerr DISTRIBUTION MANAGER NOW HIRING! CONTRIBUTORS Amber Finnegan Aspen Ritter

PRODUCTION & DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Whitney McPhie DESIGNERS Anand Kailasam TECHNOLOGY & WEBSITE TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS George Olson Hongzu Pan Sara Ray ADVISING & ACCOUNTING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Maria Dominguez STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Rae Fickle

To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com MISSION STATEMENT 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. ABOUT 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 online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

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PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Native vendors united to create an inclusive space, as well as promote cultural resilience and economic sustainability for Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs

NATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY PSU-NASCC HOSTS PORTLAND INDIGENOUS MARKETPLACE MACIE HARRELD Indigenous Peoples’ Day—celebrated on Oct. 9—is “a day to celebrate who Indigenous people are,” said artist and business-owner Rebecca Kirk (Klamath and Leech Lake Ojibwe). “There was a time when we weren’t able to celebrate or practice our traditional customs, but now we’re able to and that’s a really beautiful thing,” Kirk said. Kirk—owner of Resting Warrior Face Apparel—creates original artwork, accessories, clothing and handmade jewelry. Kirk was one of many Native vendors who gathered on Oct. 9 to form the Portland Indigenous Marketplace at the Portland State Native

ARTS & CULTURE

American Student and Community Center (PSU-NASCC). Another vendor present there was Zani Nevayaktewa (Hopi), co-owner of a family-owned business called RRB Native, which sells handmade jewelry and specializes in beadwork, silver and gemstone adornments. “[Indigenous Peoples’ Day] is very important—especially for my children—because growing up I didn’t get to have very much of that recognition, like seeing that in our schools or in the media,” Nevayaktewa said. “For me, every day is a Indigenous’ Peoples Day, as weird

as that sounds—just because of the nature of the work I do,” said Dr. Kali Simmons (Oglala Lakota), assistant professor of Indigenous Nations studies at PSU. “But it’s nice to have a federally-recognized day that invites people to hopefully educate themselves about Indigenous people more broadly… and to make connections with Indigenous people in their local community, and think about who are the traditional people of the lands that you’re living on.” The Portland Indigenous Marketplace is one such opportunity for connection. This event is held in various locations around

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

the Portland area and will return to PSU-NASCC on Nov. 24–26. Lluvia Merello (Quechua, Andean/Inca)is the founder of Portland Indigenous Marketplace. Merello organized this community of Indigenous and Black artisans in order to support “Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs by providing barrier-free, culturally respectful spaces that encourage cultural resilience and economic sustainability.” The marketplace relies primarily on grants, donations and volunteers to maintain itself. There is no fee for artisans to sell, but vendors must meet two requirements. First, they must offer handmade products. Second, “if you’re making culturally specific items, we really are very specific that you have to be from that culture,” Merello said. “For us it’s important that you know where your Indigeneity comes from.” “When I went to other events that weren’t culturally specific, I would maybe be the only one of two vendors that were Indigenous or even people of color at events,” Merello said. “It was really a night-and-day experience… when I was having a better time at an event and felt supported and in community.” Merello began organizing the marketplace in response to a lack of entrepreneurial opportunities for Indigenous communities in Portland. “Before [COVID-19], there were probably 12–14 annual events that local Native artists could count on happening every year… and I was like, ‘That’s not enough…’” Merello said. “Folks really are trying to build a business and they just need more exposure.” Aside from the marketplace, Portland has other opportunities to engage with Native histories and cultures. For example, PSU-NASCC organizes various festive and educational events every year. As Native American Heritage Month approaches, the PSU Indigenous Nations studies department has collaborated with two local theaters to host Native-centric film screening events. The first of these on Oct. 23 will feature the 2023 historical drama Killers of the Flower Moon, followed by the horrorthriller film Clearcut on Nov. 4. Additionally, the Center for Native Arts and Culture in Southeast Portland hosts workshops, artist talks and exhibition spaces “to strengthen Native communities and promote positive social change with American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native peoples in the United States,” according to its website. This center represents one of many instances in which stolen land has been returned to Native ownership, fulfilling the LandBack movement. Initially owned by Yale Union, the $5.36 million building was donated to the Native Arts and Culture Foundation in 2020. This movement is not metaphorical, theoretical or unprecedented. “It is the reclamation of everything stolen from the original peoples: land, language, ceremony, food, education, housing, healthcare, governance, medicines, kinship,” the official LandBack manifesto states.

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

While this type of reconciliation is still hindered by performative land acknowledgments, unfulfilled treaties and hollow apologies, the LandBack movement continues to gain ground. It represents a materialization of support and respect for Native Nations and Native sovereignty. “If you are a settler and you have large tracts of land—especially if that land is located near traditional food sites, traditional sacred sites, places like that—how can you make those spaces available to the communities who traditionally do ceremonies or collect food or collect medicines there?” Simmons said. “When we talk about LandBack, the first thing that people think about is ‘my private land’, which we are talking about, but actually the preponderance of public lands are owned by places like the Bureau of Land Management,” Simmons said. “In Oregon, there’s lots of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management that could perhaps instead be returned to the ownership of tribes so that they could have stewardship over it instead,” Simmons said. “Currently the Pacific Northwest has 16.1 million acres of public lands that are managed by [the Bureau.] And so, hey, let’s start there.” Here in Portland, many opportunities exist to redistribute resources more equitably to Indigenous communities. For example, at PSU equitable funding does not even reach students who are Native to the land on which the university stands. “I think every PSU student who is aware of our land acknowledgment and aware that we resided on the traditional homelands of the Chinook people should be supporting the Chinook’s efforts to reclaim their federal recognition status,” Simmons said. “A significant thing that’s impacting them at PSU is that they don’t qualify for the Oregon Tribal Grant,” Simmons said. “And so even though we’re literally on their homelands, and we’re offering federal benefits to other Indigenous students here, we are not offering federal benefits to them.” The U.S. as a whole has much work to do in reconciling the long histories of violence against Indigenous peoples of this land. Settler colonialism imposes even on Indigenous Peoples’ Day itself, considering it is still recognized by many states and on the federal level as Columbus day. “I feel like there are better Italian American heroes that we could have a day [named] after than Christopher Columbus—who not only instituted a regime of genocidal violence that this continent hadn’t seen before, but that also was deeply involved in the slave trade,” Simmons said. “I also think about this as a day of solidarity too between Indigenous peoples across the globe. There are Indigenous peoples currently engaged in collective struggles for sovereignty across the world, and these problems share an origin. And we have to remember there are Afro-Indigenous people domestically and globally. The Columbus/Indigenous Peoples Day dynamic invites us to think about how these anticolonial struggles are interconnected.”

“There is such an overrepresentation of a lot of western heroes,” Simmons said. “There isn’t a lot of mainstream representation of prominent Native people that did cool stuff. Like, you could probably rattle off a list of 50 famous white, Euro-American men. And then when it came to listing prominent Indigenous people, that would be a harder list for people to compose.” “Equity can feel like discrimination for some people, when we’re saying, ‘Hey, let’s level the playing field and give equal representation to different communities,’” Simmons said. “There is a long, beautiful history before Columbus or colonizers, and when we don’t include that history we’re totally erasing it,” Merello said. “We’re saying history started 500 years ago. That’s not even right.” Settlers educating themselves about the histories and present realities of Native Nations is necessary for their proper recognition and acknowledgment. Unfortunately, mainstream education and media institutions across the U.S. largely fail to center Native perspectives to adequate degrees. Simmons teaches a class called Intro to Native Studies. This class addresses the histories of Native Nations specific to Oregon and their forced removals, the current legal statuses of Tribal Nations and reservation lands and the abuse and murder of Native children in federally-mandated boarding schools. Simmons conducts polls to gauge if the course content is new or familiar to students. “A lot of students reported that all of the content that I bring week to week is brand new,” Simmons said. “And that has been my experience as long as I’ve been teaching this class.” “So there’s definitely more that can be done to integrate a really honest engagement with the history of colonization in education,” Simmons said. “Because I think a lot about like, ‘When will I stop experiencing this?’ When will I come into class and I’ll have these first three lectures and most students will be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I know all this stuff. I learned it in high school. I learned it in middle school. I learned it in elementary school…’ What would the world look like if that started to happen? Would other policies change?” Native Americans should not have to shoulder the burden of curing non-natives’ ignorance either. “I was always called out in school for being the only Native in the classroom, and having [this] expectation from my teacher and others,” Nevayaktewa said. “That because I’m Native I know everything about all Native cultures—which is never true, because I only knew about my own tribe, and that was it. So I feel like definitely reading up on Indigenous cultures—especially in whatever state or region you’re in—learning about those local tribes [is important].” There are many ways to celebrate and honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Education is undoubtedly the foundation for progress, but a partially recognized holiday must materialize as more than a gesture to truly decolonize this land.

ARTS & CULTURE

VEGAN DOCTORS VERSUS SCIENCE OHSU CRITICIZED FOR TRAINING WITH LIVE ANIMALS

CAMERON RODRIGUEZ A small protest took place outside of Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) last month. Although some may think it was for nursing unions, it was actually for animal advocacy. Organized by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), the group gathered to raise awareness about the treatment of animals at OHSU. While OHSU has a history of infractions related to its use of animals in research, the overall impression is that these infractions were unintentional mishaps. In one study, OHSU used prairie voles in an attempt to demonstrate the impact of alcohol on relationships. Voles have strong social relationships and—unlike rats—participate in drinking, choosing alcohol over the offered water. Ultimately, the study suggests alcohol can affect the voles’ close bond, which might also give insight into the complexities of human relationships and alcohol. After this study, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) pressed the school for records, later suing OHSU for not complying with the public records request. OHSU has conducted several animal studies and has recently been under fire for multiple violations—including at the primate facility—with gruesome accidents as a result of neglect and poor management. This lack of care led to OHSU paying $38,000 in penalties for Animal Welfare Act violations. OHSU has a Public Health Service Approved Animal Welfare Assurance with the federal government, as well as USDA inspections at all facilities and implemented oversight programs. In Nov. 2022, OHSU released a public statement reviewing the settlement agreement and included a detailed list of mishaps and mitigation measures.

SCIENCE & TECH

NICK GATLIN/PSU VANGUARD The graphic posters around town and on the Portland Streetcar makes PCRM's bias clear

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

MIRI STEBIVKA/PCRM PCRM protested outside OHSU in September, but some of their claims lack scientific validity

OHSU has refused to comment on the ongoing campaign directed towards them by PETA and PCRM regarding training with live animals. However, PCRM representative Dr. John Pippin was open regarding the protest and PCRM’s long-term advocacy. “I have written to the residency director—Dr. Karen Brasel— three times and gotten no response,” Pippen said. “I’ve written to the chair of the surgery department—Kenneth Azzaro—three times and have gotten no response. On the day of our recent onsite demonstration, Sept. 7, I delivered a letter to Dr. Brasel, Dr. Azzaro and added the medical school dean David Jacoby. Almost four weeks, and we have no response. We have made a substantial effort to establish a dialogue, and they have completely blown us off.” If you examine PCRM’s posters all over town with explicit imagery, it’s evident that PCRM is an animal advocacy group with a clear objective. “We wanted to make the public—in Portland and in the surrounding areas—know what was going on and how their doctors were being trained using substandard methods and how their public university refuses to address it,” Pippin said. PCRM recommends and advocates for doctors entirely relying on simulations, virtual reality and other artificial training tactics. “There’s no excuse in the world for not using them,” Pippin said. “In fact, OHSU has not one, but two simulation centers that have access to these simulators. And yet they choose to kill animals in the process of substandard training.” However, OHSU stated, “OHSU only conducts animal studies when other nonanimal research methods, such as laboratorybased cell culture, simulation, gene chips or computer modeling are scientifically inadequate and/or when experimental designs are too dangerous for human participants.” Moreover, science does not support that using live animals is a substandard way to train doctors. A review published in the

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

Journal of Surgical Education—the culmination of the research they collected—showed the results suggest an educational benefit of live models. In another comparative study—published by The American Surgeon—there is no observed difference between the use of either live animals or simulation affecting the quality of a doctor’s training. Exploring the track record of OHSU, the violations and recent news coverage had little to do with the pigs at facilities, but mainly the neglect of enclosures and routine care for the animals. These documented violations are more reflective of neglectful pet owners than malicious scientists. Rather than focus on the potential to improve the quality and condition of animals in this training process, Pippin doubled down. “There’s not any way to do this humanely because of what the pigs suffer, but also because of what the public suffers by having their surgery residents trained using substandard protocols,” Pippin said. “When we think of ethics, we don’t just think of animals. We think of what the ethics regarding patient care are.” When asked about the organization’s stance on vegetarianism and if that affected how these trainings were valued, Pippin said it wasn’t relevant. “It has nothing to do with it,” Pippin said. “We’re talking about training doctors, and our interest is in the best way to train doctors. And, when possible, to do so without sacrificing animals… The approach we take has to do with the quality of training and the abuse and killing of animals in order to produce an inferior product.” However, this differs from the organization as a whole. PCRM is overtly biased towards a plant-based diet, openly advocating for a vegetarian meal plan. Rather than focus on reducing meat consumption and trying to diversify the types of nutrients people consume, the group focuses on removing meat and

dairy altogether. PCRM was founded in 1985 by Dr. Neal Barnard. Barnard was professionally trained as a psychiatrist and spent a lot of his professional focus on nutritional research. His biases are openly stated, and should therefore be considered when looking at his research and if the results lead to the attitude or the attitude leads to the results. PCRM has faced criticism from the Center for Consumer Freedom team (CCF). CCF claimed that PCRM purportedly emphasized potential links between meat consumption and cancer risk without providing proper citations or a detailed explanation of this correlation. Another group labeled them the vegan-promoting physicians group and raised concerns about perceived suspicious activities within the organization. These concerns included illegitimately claiming to be a doctor and a history of disseminating biased or one-sided information. PCRM maintains connections and collaborations with animal advocacy organizations like PETA. PETA frequently employs emotionally charged language rather than presenting factual information. For instance, PETA has characterized the utilization of pigs for medical purposes as mutilation, emphasizing emotional bias over more adaptive and informative descriptions. PETA tends to rely on stirring emotions to motivate people to take action, sometimes offering less comprehensive information in the process. Obtaining unbiased information—particularly on emotionally charged topics—can be challenging. It’s crucial to approach such subjects with a critical mindset and consider the motivations behind the desire for certain information to be perceived as accurate. Even in emotionally charged content, there may still be elements of legitimacy which warrant further examination.

SCIENCE & TECH

PSU FOOD PANTRY SERVES 2,000 STUDENTS DAILY

NEW CHANGE MEETS NEEDS AND MEMORIALIZES STAFF

ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD At the PSU Food Pantry's new temporary location, the increase in student service numbers is partly attributed to the removal of old restrictions

ALYSSA ANDERSON These days, it is typical to see a line out the door and down the block when walking past the Portland State Food Pantry. The pantry temporarily moved from its old location in the Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) basement and into Green Zebra’s old space at 1704 SW Broadway. As they await the remodel of their previous space, the number of students served has increased exponentially. Last year, approximately 70 students served per day. Earlier this term, approximately 2,000 students served in one day. In the coming months, the pantry will continue to see many changes—including a name change. Bea McGrath—the pantry’s general manager—explained how pantry staff voted to change the pantry’s name to The Smallwood Food Pantry to honor the pantry’s former general manager Bobby Smallwood. Smallwood was killed this July during a shooting at Legacy Hospital where he worked as a security guard. “He really stuck around and was extremely dedicated to the success of the food pantry and the mission,” McGrath said. “There are still several people here who worked with him at the time. I literally had someone come in off the street yesterday and ask about him, because they knew each other from back in the day. He had a big impact on keeping the pantry going during the [COVID-19] pandemic and also was just extremely dedicated, which is what we really need from our staff and our volunteers. It’s just a very hard job, so having someone who’s dedicated to the mission is really important.” Though they thought they would be able to move into the remodeled space at the beginning of fall term, McGrath said delays in construction and changes in the plan for the space delayed the move until winter break. “They say they’re going to be done in November, but we don’t want to shut down the food pantry mid-term and try to do the move,” McGrath explained. “The plan is that the construction will be done beginning to mid-November, and hopefully I’ll have all the shelving and stuff come in around that time… and get everything moved over and set up for operations before winter term starts. Day one winter term—hopefully we’ll be ready to roll.” McGrath explained how the new space would help alleviate the safety concerns they dealt with in the old space. In a previous interview with Portland State Vanguard over the summer, the pantry’s former general manager—Trenna Wilson—said the pantry staff was experiencing high turnover rates, staff burnout and injuries on the job due to the physical demands of food pantry jobs. Wilson said they could streamline operations and avoid unnecessary physical labor and safety issues with an expanded space. In August, NBC News reported that the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated food prices were one of the most significant

NEWS

contributors to the increase in the Consumer Price Index, which rose to 3.2% in July from the 3% reported in June. According to NBC, food-at-home prices—such as food purchased at grocery stores—increased by 3.6% over 12 months. Food-away-from-home prices—such as food at restaurants—increased by 7.1%. According to a 2020 report by the PSU Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC), 47% of PSU students and 16.5% of PSU staff experienced food insecurity the month leading up to the survey. “41.8% of students reported cutting the size of their meals because they did not have enough money for food,” HRAC reported. “On average, this occurred on almost 10 of the past 30 days. Almost 9% of students indicated that they did not eat for a whole day because there was not enough money for food. On average, this occurred on approximately 6 of the past 30 days.” Wilson said the need for an efficient food pantry for PSU students is dire in this current economic climate. McGrath explained how—with the new pantry space and some new implementations— they hope to serve the PSU community better while ensuring the safety of their staff. “Hopefully having this expanded space will make it also safer for staff, where we have less of a trip hazard,” McGrath said. “Also, it can help encourage better lifting habits, because we had a little bit of a back-strain issue this past year with how much food we’re moving.” McGrath said their numbers have increased mainly due to their decision to remove some patron restrictions. “Two years ago, we were doing about… 50–60 people a day on average, and that had been a historic norm,” McGrath said. “I think one of the things that was holding us back was that we had restrictions on how much people could take and how many times people could visit a week.” “Now, we’ve removed restrictions on how much people can take,” McGrath said. “We have recommendations, but it’s completely up to the students whether they’re going to follow those. And also we have no restrictions on how often people can come. They can come every day. They can even come twice a day… Removing those restrictions was definitely a huge step and moving towards open distribution was a huge step in just making it more worthwhile for patrons to come.” Most of the pantry’s food comes from the Oregon Food Bank, a nonprofit which collects and distributes food through a network of 21 regional food banks and more than 1,400 food-assistance sites. In the coming months, McGrath said they want to request an additional pick-up order from the food bank, which they started doing last year but had to stop over the summer due to a decrease in patronage and lack of staff. Additionally, they will start a mini-pantry program which will

place smaller food pantries in different locations around campus to serve underserved communities, such as people with mobility issues or time constraints preventing them from visiting the pantry. They also plan to work alongside unions at PSU to ensure members have access to pantry services and to establish a collaborative relationship with the Basic Needs Hub. To do this, McGrath explained how they would need to move away from being an entirely student-operated organization and gain funding to hire at least one full-time staff member. They plan to ask the Student Fee Committee for a budget expansion and hope to avoid budget cuts. “Trying to serve this many people with fewer staff [members] is hard,” McGrath said. “I won’t say impossible—it’s close to impossible—but it’s very hard. We feel like having this robust of a food pantry really makes Portland State University stand out amongst all of the universities. And just solidifying that and having someone who will stay with the job and just continue the success—potentially for decades—would really be helpful, but to do that we need more funding.”

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS CROSSWORD Untitled By Zoë Buhrmaster

5 6

Across

2. first known languages of the Columbia River region

Down

1. "bread room" or "larder"

2. first-known languages of the 4. Native AmericanRiver heritage month Columbia region

3.1.soon to be 11th U.S. state to ban sale of “bread room” or “larder” products made using animal testing

6. largest urban car-free area in Europe

5. best selling video game since 1985

4. Native American Heritage Month

7. pick it & carve it out

6. largest urban, car-free area in Europe

8. Smith's grandmother, or a crisp fruit

7. pick one of these to carve it

8. Smith's grandmother, or a crisp fruit

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

3. soon to be eleventh U.S. state to ban sale of products made using 9. (Metropolitan Area Express) animal testing

5. b est selling video game since 1985 9. (Metropolitan Area Express)

NEWS

VIRTUAL SPORTS PSU’S GROWING GAMING CLUB

LAURA KOWALL In recent years, the world of video games “At the start of 2017, 40 collegiate esports has undergone a remarkable transformation. programs began in North America, with over What was once considered a pastime for a $4 million in college funding for esports,” acniche group of enthusiasts has now blossomed cording to research published in Loading: into a multi-billion-dollar entertainment The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies industry. Association. “A year later, nearly 200 schools have some type of varsity support for esports A significant aspect of this transformation is the emergence of professional gamers as stars, with $15 million of scholarships in the collecaptivating audiences on a global scale. As the giate scene.” What sets Vikings Gaming apart is that they popularity of esports continues to surge, many believe competitive gaming is on the cusp of are not a fully-funded esports program like becoming a mainstream sport. some of their competitors. Fueled by a passion In the realm of collegiate esports, the Vikings for the game, their players compete against Gaming Club at Portland State stands strong universities with scholarships and resources as a rapidly evolving hub for gamers, offering dedicated to their esports programs. “It’s them a space for students to come together, comversus us,” Lindstedt said. “[We’re] just a bunch pete, grow and forge friendships through video of people who’ve banded together out of passion for wanting to compete.” games. Aaron Lindstedt—the co-president and deThe average skill level of the Vikings Gaming’s sign lead of the club—spoke on how much work ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD “Valorant” team is within the top 6% of their competitors. “Our lowest-ranked starters are he and the other officers of the club have put Vikings Game Club meets on campus for gaming and has a large online community, with nearly 500 members on their Discord server all within the top 16 of ‘Valorant’ players in the in since regrouping after the pandemic. “Over the past year and a half, two years-ish has been world,” Lindstedt said. “And our highest-ranked a bit of a reconstruction period of the club,” starters are within the top 1% of the world.” Lindstedt said. “I came on board last year with When not in person, their Discord server the club, and since then I’ve taken charge to get is an ever-present community hub. It allows us to have in-person events and various things students to reconnect with peers and engage going throughout esports, as well as direct a in gaming-related activities without commutrebrand of the club image.” ing back to campus after classes—a common The club’s history stretches back sevscenario for a commuter campus such as PSU. They also use the Discord server to meet up eral years, primarily focused on “League of virtually. “Anyone is allowed to join, whether Legends,” “but from what I understand that iteration of the club almost completely died they’re a student or not,” Lindstedt said. “They out during COVID-19,” Lindstedt said. just need to be in the Discord server to join it. The club has achieved a significant onFor our public events, those events are fully line presence with close to 500 members on open to the general public—not just students.” their Discord server and over 300 members Although they haven’t won any prize yet, on PSU Connect—the official site for trackthe prospect of scholarships awarded as part ing PSU clubs. of their victories is exciting. “One of the things that I had noticed was Additionally, Vikings Gaming has ambitious that there’s not really any other gaming clubs plans to secure a dedicated gaming space on on campus, and that led us to just kind of concampus to provide students with a place to tinually expand,” Lindstedt said. “That rebrand connect and play. This project is part of their has kind of positioned us to be a lot more provision to establish themselves as a central hub fessional in this area, and kind of the sector of for the local gaming community, particularly collegiate esports.” facturer—and Nexigo—which is a local tech company who’s in the absence of a similar resource on campus. The club’s mission is to create a safe and inclusive space for The club organized a successful “Super Smash Bros.” tour- going to be providing things like projectors for the event,” nament, attracting over 80 participants—indicating the growth Lindstedt said. “Then, we’re also going to have some drinks students from all backgrounds. “I think [that] through what and vitality of the Portland “Smash Bros.” scene. Lidstedt was from Red Bull there.” we’re doing, we’re actually achieving that,” Lindstedt said. happy to be able to provide the space. Moving forward, they expect regular meet-ups. “Our plan [is] “Video games are a nice kind of neutral-level playing field “That was really good for the Portland Smash scene, especially for in-person events throughout this year on Fridays,” Lindstedt where anyone of any background can come together and cast because the local scene around [Super] Smash Bros in Portland said. “That’s kind of our goal. And then past that, we’re actually aside anything that might be with them in real life… None of that is going to matter in a video game, and it’s very easy for was not as active as you would expect it to be,” Lindstedt said. looking to do smaller biweekly tournaments.” “It’s mostly a bunch of smaller tournaments with paid-entry Vikings Gaming primarily focuses on two popular games: people to just come together through that.” Vikings Gaming has the potential to bring PSU’s commuter fees. So we were able to host one of the largest free tourna- “Super Smash Bros.” and “Valorant.” “Smash Bros.” is a fan faments of 2023.” vorite—serving as a cornerstone for in-person events—while students together, creating a sense of community they might not otherwise experience. Their upcoming event—Spawn Point: Smash Tournament and “Valorant” has become their flagship esports title. With plans to expand their esports roster to include games The club boasts a full roster of 10 players competing in the Costume Contest—is scheduled for Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. in the Smith Ballroom. It is set to be their biggest event yet. Collaborating Collegiate Valorant League—one of the largest collegiate es- like “Counter-Strike,” “Overwatch,” “Fortnite” and “Rainbow with the tabletop gaming club Critical Miss, the event will fea- ports tournaments. “We’re competing in the West Falls split Six Siege,” Vikings Gaming seeks enthusiastic individuals to ture board games, a large Super Smash Bros. tournament, ca- for that,” Lindstedt said. “Currently there’s actually 82 other join the team managers as captains or to spearhead new teams. sual video games such as “Mario Kart” and a costume contest college teams signed up for that tournament. So it’s going to be “We’re hoping to expand quite a bit over this year and the next to celebrate Halloween. a very large tournament circuit, where we’re going up against one,” Lindstedt said. “With a lot of wanting to reach that goal of “We’ve got a few sponsors for the event as well as companies teams from universities that have fully funded esports pro- getting some kind of gaming space deal on campus by 2025.” like [Micro-Star International]—a large computer part manu- grams, where their players have scholarships to play the game.”

SPORTS

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

NO MORE CARS ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI Allocating additional space for non-automobile transportation options on campus could reduce the number of cars and decrease carbon emissions

NICK GATLIN

PSU SHOULD GO CAR-FREE

There are too many cars at Portland State. If you’ve ever been to PSU’s campus, chances are you’ve noticed the parking situation. Commuters coming to PSU by car have a few choices. They can park in one of the large campus parking structures or park on the street—that’s if there’s parking available at all. That gets to the heart of the problem—students shouldn’t be driving cars to campus. That’s not to blame the students, of course. For many people, it’s far easier to drive than to use transit, and that’s the issue. Despite TriMet’s success and PSU’s efforts to make the campus more accessible, unfortunately, it’s a fact that many students’ only real option is driving. This is exactly why we should be making it easier for students to use transit, rather than indulging in car-friendly planning with the hope of finally reducing traffic congestion. The presence of cars on campus isn’t inevitable—it’s a policy choice. According to U.S. News & World Report, less than 5% of students bring cars to campus at universities like Georgetown, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. These universities are in crowded urban areas where parking is expensive and limited. PSU is primarily a commuter school, with only a small percentage of students living on campus. According to PSU statistics, 32.3% of students take public transportation to campus, with another 6.5% bicycling. That’s a good start. However, we can and should reduce the number of students who drive alone to campus, which currently stands at 21.4%. PSU students can ride the Portland Streetcar for free with their PSU ID cards. With the streetcar fare waived, PSU students can ride many places to and from downtown, such as the South Waterfront, the Pearl District, NW 23rd Avenue and Central Eastside. This is a model which PSU should follow for all public transit. Waiving the streetcar fare for students successfully encourages transit use, but streetcar routes are still fairly limited with only three loops serviced around the city. Why not expand this free fare to the entire TriMet system? Public transit is cheaper than a personal car, but students might be more likely to use this option with barriers removed. The Student Viking Pass is a subsidized transit pass for PSU students

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

who are eligible, and this significantly reduces the cost of using TriMet. A fall term parking permit can cost upwards of $400, while a fall term Student Viking Pass costs only $100 and allows students to ride TriMet as many times as they like during the term. That adds up to $400 a year—not terribly expensive, but still not cheap. The goal is to get people out of cars and onto public transportation, and a large part is making transit more accessible. Urban greenspaces are essential for city residents’ health and well-being. For starters, the gray infrastructure such as roads, driveways and parking lots which is needed for car travel absorbs a disproportionate amount of heat, contributing to the urban heat island effect and making the city considerably hotter day and night. In contrast, green infrastructure like tree canopies, parks and other vegetated areas keep heat levels down and help temper the effects of extreme heat events. These events are growing more frequent and more intense due to climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. A significant problem facing the expansion of green spaces is cars. A large segment of the Park Blocks has an awkward pair of narrow, one-way roads on its outer edges, congesting much of the space with cramped street parking and busy lines of singlefile cars. This section of the Park Blocks could be converted into a pedestrian thoroughfare, expanding the sidewalks and greenery to fill the entire street. Such a conversion is not unheard of. Montgomery Plaza—a pedestrian-only stretch of road between SW 6th Avenue and SW Broadway—used to be open to cars before vehicle traffic was banned in 2019. More recently, the Couch Street Plaza in Old Town transformed an entire city block into a car-free public space in 2022. “Portland’s streets are for people,” stated Former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty about the space. “It is wonderful to see our public right-of-way being used to support small businesses, musicians, and the performing arts at the new Couch Street Plaza. I encourage everyone to visit and support the Old Town community and their beautiful new public space.” Portland’s streets are for people, and we should act like it. Under the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) Public Street

Plaza program, 17 pedestrian plazas have opened across the city, from SE Woodstock Boulevard to N Lombard Street. That’s a good start, but it can and should be even more expansive. According to PBOT, “The Public Street Plazas program has had significant public support, with 86% of survey respondents supporting keeping street space open for public plazas beyond 2022.” Four PSU students created a plan for more reduced-car plazas with the 2022 Downtown Portland Living Streets plan to increase pedestrian spaces without entirely shutting out cars. Cameron Bennett—engineering student and team member—described the proposed streets as “a pedestrian-focused equivalent to the neighborhood greenways in Portland.” “Not explicitly car-free, but kind of implicitly,” Bennett stated. “It’s a street where the design shows that it’s a space for pedestrians first and cars second: a street where people can feel comfortable lingering, mingling, and enjoying being in public space.” In a densely populated area like downtown, there are opportunities for even more pedestrian plazas, especially considering the concentration of public transit in the area. The Urban Plaza has easy access to transit, flanked on either side by MAX trains and buses, with the Portland Streetcar stopping right in the middle of the square. Leaning into this demand or reducing the use of cars in the area would likely encourage more commuters to use transit. Streets such as 5th and 6th Avenue are already a part of the Portland Transit Mall—a transit hub with compact stops, large transit shelters and reduced car traffic. Cars are limited to only the left-hand traffic lane along these streets. It’s not a giant leap to suggest that cars be barred from the transit mall entirely. That’s how it used to be. When the mall was first constructed, the automobile lane was limited to three-block segments, according to TriMet. Cars were only permitted to drive the entire mall length after a 2007 redesign. This is recent history. PSU can make small but significant improvements to promote public transit and reduce the use of cars on campus. PSU is committed to climate action, planning to make the campus carbon neutral by 2040. There is no better place to start than embracing climate-friendly public transportation in our urban campus.

OPINION

Community & Wellness Resources UPDATED WEEKLY By Kat Leon

Happening soon Children’s Costume Swap SMSU 333 Oct. 19, 11 a.m. Free The Resource Center for Students with Children invites the PSU community to a children’s Halloween costume swap. Snacks, games and crafts are provided.

Critical Conversations Pan-African Commons Oct. 19, 12 p.m. Free This week, they will be addressing whether it is the Black community’s duty to educate others on Black issues

PSU Serve Your City Shorts

Community

Wellness

PSU Basic Needs Hub

SHAC Mind Spa

SMSU Suite 435 Mon–Fri, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Free for students

UCB Suite 310 Mon–Fri (by appointment) Free for students

Helps students access resources such as funds, food, housing, employment, childcare and health support

Solo space to experience biofeedback, light therapy, meditation, massages, relaxation and more. Must be enrolled in at least five credits for summer or fall.

PSU Food Pantry 1704 SW Broadway (temporary location) Tues–Thur, 12–4 p.m. Free for students Access to free groceries in a welcoming, equitable, trauma-informed way. Must be enrolled in at least one credit for summer or fall.

SMART Recovery Meetings University Center Building 340 E Times vary Free

SMSU M108 Oct. 19, 12 p.m. Free

In peer recovery, students with shared experiences connect to reduce stigma and build a campus recovery community

Join PSU’s Student Community Engagement Center to volunteer your time. Make cards for Store to Door and Meals on Wheels to brighten a homebound senior’s day!

SHAC Weekly Online Parent Support Group

Canvas and Kvass

Online Thursdays 11 a.m. Free

FMH 334 Oct. 19, 4 p.m. Free

Come together as parents in a relaxed setting to support each other, share ideas, collaborate and commiserate

Join the Russian Club for painting and drinking a Russian beverage called Kvass

Community Technology Space

German Club Stammtisch

730 SW 10th Ave. Suite 111 (entrance on SW 9th Ave.) Mon–Fri, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Free

Smith’s Coffee Oct. 25, 2 p.m. Free for students Join the German Club for a few hours of reading poetry and short stories, as well as German conversation and about the culture

Live @ Lunch Parkway North in SMSU Tuesdays/Thursdays, 12 p.m. Free

Multnomah County official cooling center with access to free technology, internet, limited books and events

Oregon Energy Fund Varying Locations Mon–Fri, hours vary Free Provides energy bill assistance to low-income Oregonians to support household stability

Mindful Meanderings Listen on Spotify Available 24/7 Free PSU-produced podcast about being mindful while outside, practicing gratitude, finding joy and being in the moment

Telus Health Student Support Download on App Store or Google Play Available 24/7 Free Connecting students with free, confidential mental health and wellbeing support

Workshop Wednesday Video Series Watch on Youtube Available 24/7 Free PSU Campus Recreation Center staff videos about topics ranging from Leave No Trace and plant identification to hiking spots and land acknowledgments

BORP Online Fitness Studio Watch on Zoom Mon–Sat, hours vary Free Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program’s (BORP) virtual exercise classes for people with physical disabilities

Cosmic Kids Yoga Watch on Youtube Available 24/7 Free Using fun and popular stories to get kids engaged in a calm, relaxing, mindful workout

A music series for students by students. A place to study, eat, meet local bands and make new friends!

RESOURCES

PSU Vanguard • OCTOBER 19, 2023 • psuvanguard.com