University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, who was denied a pay raise five years ago over inviting a former porn actress to speak on campus, has been fired for himself engaging in explicit sexual acts with his wife on popular porn websites.
Gow, the longest-tenured chancellor in the Universities of Wisconsin system, was already planning to retire at the end of the school year. But in a three-hour, closed-door meeting Wednesday, the Board of Regents unanimously decided to terminate his chancellorship and place him on administrative leave.
It’s unclear whether Gow violated any specific UW system policies. Current policies allow the system president and the Regents to fire a chancellor at any time, when “such action is deemed to be in the best interests of the chancellor’s institution and of the UW System.”
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According to an Amazon author profile listed under a pseudonym, both Gow and his wife, former UW-La Crosse professor and chief of staff Carmen Wilson, are pictured and describe themselves as “a married woman and man who serve in executive positions at two well-known organizations in the U.S. They frequently participate in civic and charitable events and appear in their local media.”
Descriptions of the books listed on the Amazon author profile describe the couple as “sex-positive” and wanting to prevent the sexual lulls of past marriages, as well as stating the two have collaborated with workers in the porn industry to create their own “upscale” pornographic videos.
The profile goes on to say the couple has videos on accounts on popular porn websites, including PornHub and OnlyFans. An account on X, formerly known as Twitter, openly identifies them as “Joe” and “Carmen” as the two invite porn actors onto their personal show to cook with them while clothed and later engage in sexual acts reserved for the subscriber-based porn sites. The pair also posts their cooking show and conversations with the actors — including Hartley in one installment — on their YouTube account, “Sexy Healthy Cooking.”
“Upon my recommendation, the UW Board of Regents today terminated Dr. Joe Gow from his position as chancellor of UW-La Crosse effective immediately,” UW system President Jay Rothman said in a statement after the meeting. “In recent days, we learned of specific conduct by Dr. Gow that has subjected the university to significant reputational harm. His actions were abhorrent.”
Rothman said he planned to file a complaint with Betsy Morgan, named interim chancellor at UW-La Crosse within minutes of the Regents’ decision, to review Gow’s status as a tenured faculty member. An outside law firm will also investigate Gow’s conduct.
Board of Regents President Karen Walsh said in a statement that Gow had shown “reckless disregard” for his responsibilities as the leader of UW-La Crosse.
“The outrage over his behavior is evidenced by the unanimous vote by the UW Board of Regents to terminate him as chancellor,” Walsh said. “We are alarmed, and disgusted, by his actions, which were wholly and undeniably inconsistent with his role as chancellor.”
Gow said Wednesday night he was not invited to the closed-session meeting and has concerns about his rights to due process. He also highlighted what he said was the hypocrisy of the UW system preaching the importance of free speech at board meetings just weeks before firing him.
“I want to stress that the most important thing is that my wife and I are grateful that we live in a country where we have a First Amendment freedom to create and publish books and videos that explore consensual adult sexuality,” Gow said. “I’m very concerned that here’s an issue of free speech, and we’re seeing the Board of Regents not supporting the concept.”
In December 2018, Gow was denied a pay raise, which 10 other chancellors received, after inviting a porn star to the UW-La Crosse campus as part of an inaugural free speech week event. Then-UW system President Ray Cross said Gow had “exercised poor judgment” in inviting former porn actress and activist Nina Hartley to speak at the event.
Gow was one of two chancellors denied a raise that year, along with then-UW-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper, whose husband had been banned from campus that summer and stripped of an honorary, unpaid position after an investigation concluded he had sexually harassed female employees.
Gow became UW-La Crosse’s 10th chancellor in February 2007 and is the second-longest serving chancellor in the school’s history. The Regents have already started a search for Gow’s successor.
[Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct a misquote of Board of Regents President Karen Walsh's statement about Gow. Walsh said Gow had shown “reckless disregard” for his responsibilities as the leader of UW-La Crosse.]