LA CROSSE, Wis. — Lawyers for the Universities of Wisconsin admitted during a hearing Friday that the institution has received pressure from a Republican politician and from a donor to strip veteran UW professor of communications Joe Gow of tenure for unremorsefully creating and appearing in adult content.
As XBIZ reported, the Board of Regents held a final hearing at UW-Madison’s Vilas Hall to weigh a faculty tribunal’s recommendation to terminate Gow’s employment.
Oral arguments were offered by Gow and also by lawyers of the UW system’s legal counsel office. After the hearing, the personnel matters committee met in closed session before making a recommendation for the full Board of Regents to consider at an upcoming meeting, possibly as soon as Sept. 26-27 at UW-Parkside.
“At least one donor has stated publicly that he would ‘kill’ a planned scholarship gift if Gow were not terminated,” the lawyers wrote in a document they circulated before the hearing.
The lawyers also stated that Republican State Sen. Rob Hutton, who serves as Chair of the Legislature’s Committee on Universities and Revenue “has made clear that he, a member of the legislature that provides some of the University’s funding, is opposed to Gow’s returning to teach.”
Hutton issued an official statement in December pressuring the state university system — which supposedly should operate with academic freedom — to dismiss Gow.
“The disgraceful conduct of Dr. Gow has fallen far short of what we expect as taxpaying citizens of the state of Wisconsin and further degrades public confidence in our institutions of higher education,” Hutton proclaimed, openly advocating not only for the full removal of Gow but also of “any UW officials or board members who were aware of this conduct and chose not to address this behavior.”
Free Speech Org FIRE Issues Statement Backing Gow
As XBIZ reported, Gow was fired as chancellor on the recommendation of Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman, who called the professor’s actions — including posting adult videos with his wife on their OnlyFans account — “abhorrent.”
Rothman told Gow in December that he had initiated a process to challenge his tenured faculty position in communication studies. The process resulted in a hearing during which Gow was required to defend himself before a faculty tribunal. After the hearing, the tribunal recommended that Gow be stripped of tenure.
At the tribunal, Gow delivered an opening statement in his own defense, asserting, “Tenure is based on the quality of one’s teaching, research and service. These bogus charges have nothing to do with that and they raise the question: do faculty have the right to engage in free speech in their personal lives, particularly on contemporary social media?”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech organization helping fund Gow’s defense, issued a statement earlier this week in support of the professor’s case.
FIRE Faculty Legal Defense Counsel Zach Greenberg stated, "As a public university system, the University of Wisconsin system is bound by the First Amendment, which firmly protects a wide array of colorful, controversial, and provocative speech. Public universities cannot violate the First Amendment merely to save face or appease donors.”
Professors, Greenberg added, “must be free to speak their minds when they are off the clock, even when their words offend others. Terminating tenured professors for what they say off hours would diminish academic freedom across the country. You may not like Joe Gow or his videos, but the principles that protect him also protect countless dissidents, freethinkers, artists, and others who speak truth to power. FIRE calls on the UW Board of Regents to reject the recommendation to fire Joe Gow."
Academic authorities were originally egged on to take action against Gow by Rupert Murdoch-owned publications, as part of an ongoing, nationwide trend of Republican and conservative activists and operators waging stigmatizing smear campaigns targeting the livelihoods of individuals in diverse walks of life over their sex work, even when it is unrelated to their other occupations and activities.
