LA CROSSE, Wis. — The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents has fired veteran communications professor Joe Gow, stripping him of tenure for unremorsefully creating and appearing in adult content.
As XBIZ reported earlier this month, the Board of Regents held a hearing at UW-Madison’s Vilas Hall to weigh a faculty tribunal’s recommendation to terminate Gow’s employment.
Oral arguments were offered by Gow and the UW legal counsel office. After the hearing, the personnel matters committee met in closed session before making a recommendation for the full Board of Regents to consider at a meeting this week.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech organization, helped fund Gow’s defense.
FIRE Faculty Legal Defense Counsel Zach Greenberg stated, “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 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.”
Gow’s removal was encouraged by Rupert Murdoch-owned publications, as part of an ongoing, nationwide trend of Republican and conservative activists and operators waging stigmatizing smear campaigns targeting the livelihoods of individuals in diverse walks of life over their sex work, even when it is unrelated to their other occupations and activities.
In a document they circulated before the hearing, the UW lawyers wrote, “At least one donor has stated publicly that he would ‘kill’ a planned scholarship gift if Gow were not terminated.”
The lawyers also stated that Republican State Sen. Rob Hutton, who chairs the state legislature’s Committee on Universities and Revenue, “has made clear that he, a member of the legislature that provides some of the University’s funding, is opposed to Gow’s returning to teach.”