Syracuse University decided to pull its stadium kiss cam after a letter to the editor published on syracuse.com questioned whether the halftime routine encouraged sexual assault, according a Tuesday report on the same news website.
The letter to the editor described “horrifying behavior” between two different scenarios in which the kiss cam at football games panned to two different pairs of people sitting next to each other. In both instances, the men grabbed the women sitting next to them and forcefully kissed them.
The author of the letter, published Friday, identified as Steve Port wrote:
This is completely unacceptable behavior by the male students, the surrounding students and the crowd. It makes me sick that in a day and age where sexual assault (particularly on college campuses) is so rampant that school officials would allow such a display to happen.
The instances I witnessed at the game encourage and condone sexual assault and a sense of male entitlement, at best. And they are an actual instance of assault, at worst.
The kiss cam has since been pulled, according to the news website.
“We are taking the time to assess the concerns expressed in the letter to the editor. We discussed this with POMCO, the sponsor, and they supported that approach,” Sue Edson, executive senior associate athletics director for communications, said in an email to the news website.
