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Joe Gow’s tenured faculty status has hung in limbo for months.
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Universities of Wisconsin | Joe Gow
The Universities of Wisconsin has fired Joe Gow for a second time over his pornographic double life: The Board of Regents voted unanimously on Friday to oust him from his tenured faculty position.
Gow was fired as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse late last year, after pornographic videos of Gow and his wife, Carmen Wilson, surfaced on adult websites. UW system president Jay Rothman called Gow’s actions “abhorrent” and alleged he caused “significant reputational harm” to the university in a statement echoed by board leadership.
Despite being fired from his chancellor post, Gow maintained a tenured faculty role until last week.
The Process
Though it took the UW Board of Regents less than an hour to announce a decision Friday, Gow’s fate has been hanging in the balance for months. Gow was fired almost immediately from his chancellor job, but tenure protections allowed him to remain employed while on leave.
In July a faculty panel voted 5 to 0 to recommend his termination after a June hearing. Beyond the charges brought against him, Linda Dickmeyer, chair of the Department of Communication Studies, which housed Gow’s faculty position, raised concerns about Gow’s ability to return to teaching, questioning his efficacy and arguing that notoriety “would follow him into that classroom.”
Gow’s successor, UW La Crosse chancellor James Beeby, concurred with the faculty vote and sent the recommendation on to UW’s Board of Regents, which had the final say on Gow’s fate.
Regents fired him from his faculty role due to allegations of engaging in “unethical and potentially illegal conduct” related to his pornographic activities, refusing to cooperate with a December investigation after lewd videos surfaced online and violating information technology policies by receiving vendor emails for sex toys and other items, among other reasons.
Gow—who made pornography and vegan cooking videos with his wife and occasionally adult film stars—has rejected UW’s accusations of impropriety and pointed to calls from state lawmakers who demanded his termination, alleging that the system is bowing to political pressure. Gow has also argued in media interviews and two separate hearings that his actions are protected by the First Amendment and that his online activities would not interfere with his teaching duties.
On Friday, the UW Board of Regents rejected those arguments in a 17 to 0 vote.
In a statement sent on Friday morning, Gow accused the Board of Regents of violating his free speech rights and indicated he plans to sue.
“The regents claim to want to protect and promote free expression, but their action today shows this isn’t true,” Gow wrote. “Late last year, when they fired me as chancellor, they said it was because the books and videos my wife Carmen and I posted on the internet were ‘abhorrent’ and ‘disgusting.’ And now, after a long and fraudulent process, they have fired me as a tenured faculty member, as well.”
He also referred to the regents as “a Board of Hypocrites,” alleging they backtracked on UW’s commitment to academic freedom and freedom of expression by firing him over his video productions and erotic books.
UW and board officials did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.
Reactions
In the immediate aftermath of the decision, various free speech advocates, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, condemned the board’s move to fire Gow.
“In a major blow to academic freedom and faculty free speech rights, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents has terminated tenured Professor Joe Gow for producing sexually explicit content off hours,” FIRE faculty legal defense counsel Zach Greenberg said in a statement. “FIRE has said time and time again: public universities cannot sacrifice the First Amendment to protect their reputations. We’re disappointed UW caved to donors and politicians by throwing a tenured professor under the bus.”
Christopher Terry, a media law professor at the University of Minnesota, called the decision by the UW Board of Regents “ridiculous and dangerous to free speech and academic freedom of everyone who works in the UW system” in a social media post.
Some online critics, responding to a post from FIRE, questioned whether it was a First Amendment issue, arguing that UW was within its rights to fire Gow over his productions.
Other of Gow’s detractors remained silent in the wake of the decision, including state Republican lawmakers Steve Nass and Rob Hutton, both of whom called for the university to fire him when the news broke. (Gow has alleged that pressure from state Republicans added to UW's decision to fire him, given the power the GOP-led Legislature has over university funding.)
Neither Nass nor Hutton responded to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.
