Bascom Hall, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Ron Cogswell | used by permission of the photographer)
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents on Friday fired former UW-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow from the school’s faculty over his controversial pornographic videos.
Gow had previously been fired from his position as chancellor after the videos, posted to a number of porn sites and sometimes featuring adult film stars, were uncovered, but retained his tenured faculty position and had planned to teach. The decision on Friday ends a drawn-out disciplinary process over the videos.
The board’s action sets up a potential lawsuit against the system on First Amendment grounds. After the meeting, Gow called the Regents hypocrites.
“We might as well take down that famous plaque on the front of Bascom Hall because the people who fired me today aren’t a Board of Regents — they’re a Board of Hypocrites,” Gow said referring to a plaque at UW-Madison commemorating the board’s defense of a socialist faculty member in the 1890s. “They have zero credibility on free speech and expression.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which regularly defends campus speech, has taken up Gow’s cause.
“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’s 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.”
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