Faculty panel votes that former chancellor at center of porn scandal be fired from teaching role

A faculty panel at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse recently recommended that former Chancellor Joe Gow be removed from his faculty position and stripped of tenure following a scandal regarding him and his wife making pornographic videos.

Last year the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents unanimously voted to fire Gow from his role as chancellor after learning about his pornographic videos because the regents believed Gow had subjected the university system to “significant reputational harm.” 

However, Gow had remained on the faculty as a communications professor and had hoped to retain his position as a tenured member of the faculty.

According to his biography online, Gow was previously the interim president and provost at Nebraska Wesleyan University, a Christian college, before he came to UW-La Crosse.

[RELATED: Making porn videos ‘shouldn’t cost me tenure’: ousted university chancellor]

The faculty panel’s 5–0 decision to recommend Gow’s firing is the next step toward the complete departure of Gow from the UW system, but he has not been officially removed yet. The new UW-La Crosse chancellor, James Beeby, can reportedly accept or reject the recommendation.

“After considering all testimony and materials submitted and presented by the parties, the Committee finds that the University administration has established, by a clear preponderance of the evidence, just cause to dismiss Prof. Gow based on his responsibility for the charges set forth above,” the faculty panel report said.

“It would be impossible for Prof. Gow to continue in his position as a tenured faculty member at UWL without also continuing to benefit from the conflict of interest he has created by placing himself in the public eye, in opposition to UWL’s interests, for his private gain,” the report found.

In response, Gow argued that his actions were protected by the First Amendment and decried the faculty committee’s vote as a miscarriage of justice.

[RELATED: University chancellor ousted for making ‘abhorrent’ porn videos]

“The First Amendment protects the books and videos my wife Carmen and I posted on the internet, so to fire me UW administrators had to make up a series of duplicitous charges and plant false evidence on our university computers,” Gow wrote in a statement. “Now, after over three weeks of deliberations guided by a UW System attorney, the Hearing Committee has affirmed the Administration’s sham case.”

“Carmen and I remain firmly committed to defending free speech and expression,” Gow concluded. “We’re in this for the long run, and we look forward to a public hearing with the UW Board of Regents.”

Campus Reform has contacted the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.