University Chancellor Fired for Making Porn Videos Argues It Shouldn’t “Cost Me Tenure”

In the fall of 2023, Joe Gow, the former Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, announced his decision to step down from his position at the end of the school year to transition into a faculty role.

In December 2023, however, he was fired from that position for producing and appearing in pornographic videos with his wife and sharing the content on X, porn websites, books, and the YouTube channel “Sexy Happy Couple.”

Although the couple used pen names (Geri and Jay Hart) in two books,  “Married with Benefits: Our Real-Life Adult Industry Adventures” and “Monogamy with Benefits: How Porn Enriches Our Relationship,” they did not appear to try to be secretive about their adult entertainment adventures.

University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said in a statement at the time that Gow was terminated 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. His actions were abhorrent.”

“As a tenured faculty member, Dr. Gow will be placed on paid administrative leave as he transitions into his faculty role at UW-La Crosse. However, I have filed a complaint this evening with interim Chancellor Betsy Morgan regarding Dr. Gow’s status as a tenured faculty member, asking that such status be reviewed. In addition, an outside law firm has been engaged to undertake a fulsome investigation of the matter. We anticipate the complaint will be considered in the normal course as dictated by Wis. Admin. Code Ch. 4.”

Gow now argues in a Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed, while bragging about the success of his videos, that he should not lose tenure. He frames the argument as a violation of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression.

Gow wrote:

”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,” Gow wrote. “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 added. “We watched incredulously as our videos, with no promotion whatsoever, drew hundreds of views per day, then thousands, then tens of thousands. After just a few weeks, we passed a million views in all, leading one site to rank us as its No. 2 creators for North America and Oceania in December 2023.”

Gow continued, ”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.”

“In the meantime, I enjoy recalling an anecdote my wife told me: When we were headed to Las Vegas a few years ago, one of her co-workers asked what we planned to do there. ‘Oh,’ she told him, ‘the usual stuff: Sit by the pool, eat nice dinners, make some porn.’ He chuckled at her cheeky reply.”

”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,” he said.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Interim UW-La Crosse Chancellor Betsy Morgan alleges Gow failed to cooperate with the investigation, participated in unethical and potentially illegal conduct, and violation of information use technologies.

A public hearing, scheduled for mid-June, must be held before Gow is stripped of tenure.

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