Rothman Should Back Down on Gow

We here at YSDA will doggedly follow a vital story ’til the bitter end because this is our civic duty and our commitment to you, our readers.

So, during this bitterly cold week when everyone has the post-holiday blahs, we are taking another polar plunge into the crucial Joe Gow story. When last we saw the former UW La Crosse chancellor he was cleaning out his office after being fired right around the holidays. Turns out he and his wife had a side hustle making porn videos and writing books on the subject of making porn videos. They also included recipes.

When UW System President Jay Rothman got wind of this he was outraged and he conveyed his outrage to the Regents, who, outraged, fired Gow from his chancellor position while expressing their outrage. It was all very outrageous.

Now, the YSDA Editorial Board took the position that the Regents pretty much had to fire Gow from his chancellor’s job, but that they could have trimmed back a bit on the Church Lady-like expressions of horror given that we were talking consenting adults here. We also thought Rothman was overwrought in moving to fire Gow from his tenured professorship.

Rothman continues to pursue this, but as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported this morning, there is a high bar for firing a tenured prof and the consensus is that Rothman doesn’t have the goods. “Gow has a good case, as his interest in appearing in the films — on his own time, in a personal capacity, without reference to or impact on his faculty role — likely outweighs the university’s interests in avoiding speech on the topic of sex, reputation, or potential student reactions,” the Association of University Professors wrote in an analysis of Gow’s case.

We also learned more — but not much — about how this came to Rothman’s attention. The Journal-Sentinel reports that someone contacted his office with the tip, but that person wished to remain anonymous. Makes you wonder. Was it somebody who had an ax to grind with Gow? Or was it somebody who just consumes these kinds of videos, in which case, isn’t this a little hypocritical?

In any event, Rothman should drop this. It doesn’t look like he’ll prevail, it’ll cost the UW time and resources and, if he’s really concerned about “reputational harm” to the university, going after Gow’s tenure just keeps the story alive for the months it will take to run this through the channels. Rothman’s already got his pound of flesh.

And in other Gow news, he’s got his own beer now. La Crosse’s 608 Brewery is producing Hot For Chancellor. It’s a sour, as this whole thing will turn if Rothman doesn’t back down and move on.