Universities may sometimes have classes in pornography, such as at Westminster College. But that doesn’t mean they want their officials appearing in pornography.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow was removed from his position as chancellor for for producing and appearing in pornographic videos. Now, he faces the potential loss of tenure. He argues that the First Amendment protects his production of pornography.
That argument once worked with two federal appeals courts — the Ninth and Tenth Circuits — but the Supreme Court rejected the argument that public employees have a First Amendment right to appear in pornography in San Diego v. Roe (2004). The Supreme Court concluded that producing porn is generally not speech on a “matter of public concern,” so government employers can fire employees who produce it, without violating the First Amendment. Long before the Supreme Court reached that decision, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that cops had the First Amendment right to operate a porn video store, in Flanagan v. Munger (1989).
But today, it’s a different story, so former chancellor Joe Gow could be fired from his chancellor position without violating the First Amendment.
Five months ago, University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said that Gow was terminated as chancellor following a unanimous vote by the UW Board of Regents. “In recent days, we learned of specific conduct by Dr. Gow that has subjected the university to significant reputational harm,” Rothman said. “His actions were abhorrent.”
His firing from his chancellor position came after it was revealed that Gow made and published pornographic material with his wife. The couple posted the content on X, porn websites, and had a YouTube channel called “Sexy Healthy Cooking.”
Now, he faces the loss of tenure as well. In an column he wrote for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Gow says that his tenure as a professor shouldn’t be stripped, despite the fact that his porn videos received millions of views.
”For about a decade, my wife, Carmen Wilson (also an academic), and I had used our vacation time to secretly record a series of sex scenes with adult-industry professionals. We made 18 of them in all, and we also published two books (using pen names) about our experiences. Late last year, after I had announced I was stepping down from my administrative position at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse to focus on my faculty role, we thought it would be interesting to see how a few of our scenes might be received on popular adult websites. We uploaded five of them (featuring just the two of us). Knowing those platforms host millions of videos, we doubted anyone would pay much attention. How wrong we were,” he wrote.
Gow says that he never expected the videos to surge in popularity like they did. Campus Reform reports that
After Gow was fired, Rothman announced the beginning of a challenge to his tenure position in communication studies.
Interim UW-La Crosse Chancellor Betsy Morgan alleged that Gow failed to cooperate with the investigation, participated in unethical and potentially illegal conduct, and violation of information use technologies, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
A public hearing must be held before Gow is stripped of tenure.
”I understand why UW leaders didn’t want me to continue as chancellor, but I am puzzled by their determination to keep me from returning to the classroom. After all, these are the same people who, at a board meeting held just weeks before my firing, energetically affirmed the importance of promoting free speech on our campuses,” Gow wrote. ”If only the Wisconsin regents and system president could lighten up, too. Laugh at us if you want to. Call us strange. But please don’t try to suppress the vital conversations we’re starting.”
