LA CROSSE, Wis. – University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has held a hearing to determine the fate of a veteran University of Wisconsin professor who was removed from his position as chancellor last year for ruthlessly creating and appearing in adult content.
As XBIZ reported, communications professor Joe Gow was fired as chancellor at the recommendation of University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman, who called the professor’s actions — including posting adult videos with his wife to their OnlyFans account — “abhorrent ‘ mentioned.
Rothman told Gow in December that he was also initiating a process to challenge his tenured faculty position in communication studies.
“To keep my tenure, I must defend myself in a faculty court,” Gow wrote in a recent piece about his situation for the Chronicle of Higher Education. “I’m looking forward to doing this.”
The tribunal held a meeting last week, when Wade Harrison, senior legal counsel for Wisconsin universities, “said the school has grounds to remove former Chancellor Joe Gow from his faculty position, including unethical conduct and insubordination,” Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Harrison presented the case for Gow’s removal to the Faculty Senate Committee during the first day of the two-day hearing process.
Gow gave an opening statement in his own defense, calling the government’s allegations “irrelevant, inconsistent, misleading, distorted and downright false.”
“Tenure is based on the quality of one’s teaching, research and service,” Gow noted. “These false accusations have nothing to do with that and beg the question: Do teachers have the right to express themselves freely in their personal lives, especially on today’s social media?”
Main image: University of Wisconsin communications professor Joe Gow, with wife Carmen Wilson and performer Lauren Phillips