09/17/20
Capri Scarcelli | Arts & Entertainment Editor
Enjoying sporting events has become increasingly difficult with the onset of the pandemic, though Duquesne students have gotten creative with how they will go about cheering on their favorite teams.
On Sept. 14 at 7:10 p.m., the Pittsburgh Steelers took on the New York Giants, and students took a seat in socially-distanced watch parties all across campus.
Duquesne fraternity Phi Kappa Theta organized an event as part of their fall recruitment for students to enjoy free food and drinks while enjoying the football game from the comfort of Mellon’s Laura Lecture Hall.
According to sophomore physician assistant major Andrew Thiele, recruitment chair of Phi Kappa Theta, this event was done last year on the fraternity’s wing; however, due to coronavirus restrictions, the Steelers event was moved to Mellon Hall to provide “a bigger space that would allow [them] to spread out.”
The fraternity booked the lecture hall through Student Life Vice President Douglas Frizzell, according to Thiele. Once they got approval, they were able to host the event.
“Booking a lecture hall is a great way to get a max of 25 people together to watch a movie, game, etc.” Thiele said. “Or, if you can somehow hook up a projector outside, you can bump the capacity up to 50 people, which we were originally planning to do…”
Other students got together in Residence Hall lounges to stream from the TVs.
Junior education major Helena Bassler said she went to a small watch party with six of her friends socially-distanced in the dorm rooms. According to Bassler, watch party events sponsored by campus organizations would be “really cool to have… like how the movies are shown in the Nite Spot.”
“Having organizations sponsor watch parties for games would be a nice way to meet new people. It would be cool if they could figure out how to project the games on the field, so we can practice social distancing while watching the game.” Bassler said. “Students and faculty could set up chairs, bundle up and watch the game.”
Junior education major Olivia Scherrer also spent the night rooting for the Steelers with her friends.
“It wasn’t a huge event, but it was nice to finally sit down and watch sports with my friends again,” Scherrer said.
To open watch parties to the campus, Scherrer said the university could do so by streaming in open areas and socially distancing.
“I think if we socially distance ourselves, we can have a few (safe) watch parties,” Scherrer said. “Food can be individually distributed to not sit out.”
With a score of 26-16, the Steelers had fans cheering all across campus in a safe manner.
Future games are free to stream through the Steelers Official Mobile App and Steelers.com.
