LA CROSSE, Wis. — After a University of Wisconsin-La Crosse faculty tribunal recommended stripping veteran professor of communications Joe Gow of tenure last week due to Gow having unremorsefully created and appeared in adult content, a major free speech organization has come out in his support.
The recommendation to strip Gow of tenure is now in the hands of the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents, which will also decide whether he will face termination.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) published a statement Tuesday titled “The Naked Truth: University of Wisconsin’s Push to Fire Professor Over Porn Hobby Is Bad for All Faculty.”
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 where Gow was made to defend himself before a faculty tribunal. After the hearing, the tribunal recommended that Gow be stripped of tenure.
At the tribunal, Wade Harrison, senior legal counsel for the Universities of Wisconsin, laid out the case for removing Gow in front of a faculty senate committee.
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?”
According to FIRE, Gow’s tenure was jeopardized “for the on-his-own-time activity of making pornographic videos with his wife and writing books about the experience.”
The tribunal’s recommendation, according to the free speech organization, clashes with the First Amendment, threatens the rights of all UW faculty and “undermines what tenure is meant to protect — including faculty members’ right to express themselves outside the classroom.”
The First Amendment and the concept of academic freedom, FIRE added, “protect professors from the machinations of whichever party controls the state legislature, or who controls faculty governing bodies, university administrations, or boards of regents. Punishing faculty speech for offending big donors and legislators imperils the many professors who openly criticize elected officials or take minority views.”
Main Image: University of Wisconsin communications professor Joe Gow, with wife Carmen Wilson and performer Lauren Phillips