Chancellor Turned Adult Film Star Fights To Keep UW-La Crosse Job

MADISON, WI — Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus chancellor Joe Gow argued to keep his tenured teaching job Friday after he was fired for making pornographic films with his wife.

Gow, who was the chancellor for nearly 17 years, made a First Amendment case to the personnel committee of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

"You don’t need the First Amendment to protect 'The Star Spangled Banner,'" Gow’s attorney, Mark Leitner, told the committee. "You don’t need the First Amendment to protect easy and comforting speech. It’s exactly the opposite. We need the First Amendment precisely when the danger of stifling, controversial, unpopular speech is at its highest. And that’s what we have here."

Wade Harrison, the university's attorney, said while videos are legal, they are not protected speech under his employment contract.

The regents fired Gow as chancellor in 2023 when his education officials learned of his pornographic videos.

Gow and his wife, Carmen Wilson, have six videos on OnlyFans and appear on at least two other porn websites, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Some of their videos with more than 200,000 views and others were posted in the last two months, according to the newspaper. Gow and his wife also had a YouTube channel called "Sexy Healthy Cooking."

Gow continues to draw a salary from the state because he is on paid leave from his faculty position.

But in July, a UW-La Crosse faculty committee unanimously recommended that Gow lose his faculty position, arguing that he exploited the role to make more money doing pornography work.

At the time of the firing, UW System Regent President Karen Walsh said "Dr. Joe Gow has shown a reckless disregard for the role he was entrusted with at UW-La Crosse to serve students, faculty and staff, and the campus community. The outrage over his behavior is evidenced by the unanimous vote by the UW Board of Regents to terminate him as chancellor. We are alarmed, and disgusted, by his actions, which were wholly and undeniably inconsistent with his role as chancellor."

Gow's controversy comes five years after he was publicly criticized by UW officials after he invited an adult film actress to speak on campus.

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.