Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow on Thursday said that the school’s governing board fired him because members were uncomfortable with him and his wife producing and appearing in pornographic videos.
The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents on Wednesday voted unanimously during a hastily convened closed meeting to fire Gow.
After the vote, Universities of Wisconsin president Jay Rothman and regents president Karen Walsh issued statements saying that the regents had learned of specific conduct by Gow that subjected the university to “significant reputational harm.”
Photo: University of Wisconsin-La Crosse via AP
Rothman called Gow’s actions “abhorrent,” while Walsh said that she was “disgusted,” but neither of them offered any details of the allegations.
Gow on Thursday told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the regents had discovered that he and his wife, former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse professor Carmen Wilson, had been producing and appearing in pornographic videos.
He maintained that he never mentioned the university in any of the videos and the firing contravened his free speech rights.
“My wife and I live in a country where we have a first amendment,” he said. “We’re dealing with consensual adult sexuality. The regents are overreacting. They’re certainly not adhering to their own commitment to free speech or the first amendment.”
Gow also complained that the regents never told him what policy he breached and he was never given a hearing or other opportunity to present his case. He said he is contemplating a lawsuit.
“I got an e-mail last night saying I was terminated,” Gow said. “I wish I would have had the opportunity to have a hearing. When reasonable people understand what my wife and I are creating, it calms them down.”
Gow had planned to retire as chancellor at the conclusion of the spring semester next year and transition into a role teaching communication courses, but Rothman on Wednesday said that he planned to file a complaint with university interim chancellor Betsy Morgan seeking a review of Gow’s tenure.
Rothman said in an e-mail on Thursday that Gow failed to act as a role model for students, faculty and the community, and mistakenly believes the first amendment equates to a “free pass to say or do anything that he pleases.”
“Good judgement requires that there are and must be limits on what is said or done by the individuals entrusted to lead our universities,” Rothman wrote.
Rothman added that Gow served at the pleasure of the regents and was not entitled to any specific process.
“That should be abundantly clear to him,” Rothman said.
Gow took heavy criticism in 2018 for inviting porn star Nina Hartley to speak at the university. He paid her US$5,000 out of student fees to appear.
Ray Cross, then university system president, reprimanded him and the regents refused to give him a pay raise that year. Gow said then that he was exercising the system’s free speech policies.
Gow and his wife star on a YouTube channel called “Sexy Healthy Cooking” in which the couple cooks meals with porn actors. They also have written two e-books, Monogamy with Benefits: How Porn Enriches Our Relationship and Married with Benefits — Our Real-Life Adult Industry Adventures under pseudonyms.
Their biographies on Amazon contain links to their videos on social media and a pornographic Web site.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other