JOE GOW, GONE?

Mr Gow was the chancellor (Wisconsin-speak for campus president) of Oktoberfest destination college Wisconsin-LaCrosse until his unusual side hustle came to light.

Joe Gow, who should have stuck to summer stock, was removed as chancellor of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, otherwise known as a notorious party school, and now the faculty hearing panel has recommended to the current chancellor that he be dismissed for cause.  "The former University of Wisconsin at La Crosse chancellor was fired last year for making pornography with his wife. Now a panel has recommended he lose his faculty job and tenure."  The current chancellor and the system's regents must each review the recommendation, and their concurrence is necessary before the Gows will have all sorts of leisure time to make videos.  "It's not pretty.  There's always the tension between professionalism and transgressivity in the university.  So it is playing out in LaCrosse."

The hearing panel's recommendations have made their way through the chain of command, with the system board of regents concurring with the recommendation.  He was removed as chancellor for conduct unbecoming.  The reason for stripping him of tenure looks more like misappropriation of state property.

Regents fired him from his faculty role due to allegations of engaging in “unethical and potentially illegal conduct” related to his pornographic activities, refusing to cooperate with a December investigation after lewd videos surfaced online and violating information technology policies by receiving vendor emails for sex toys and other items, among other reasons.

Gow—who made pornography and vegan cooking videos with his wife and occasionally adult film stars—has rejected UW’s accusations of impropriety and pointed to calls from state lawmakers who demanded his termination, alleging that the system is bowing to political pressure. Gow has also argued in media interviews and two separate hearings that his actions are protected by the First Amendment and that his online activities would not interfere with his teaching duties.

Something in that passage reminds me of warnings Illinois university faculty and staff received during ethics training about misusing university electronic mail, whether it was to buy stuff or to mass-quote political material.  That ethics training was a gift to us from Rod Blagojevich, who has sort of rehabilitated himself in Trump-adjacent media, and the people administering it became more fretful about the time people were putting in on the modules.  "As anyone who has ever sat the annual ethics training required of Illinois university employees (no rushing through it, peasant, or you get a do-over!) there is a gift ban, and the offer of a baseball team of tickets at face value to a public official qualifies as a covered gift."  Who knew, maybe some of the people who left the training window open so as not to be dinged for rushing through the material might have been looking at racy cooking videos in another window!)

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which remains on my Christmas list despite no longer calling attention to the restrictive speech codes at Northern Illinois University, is assisting Mr Gow in appealing the regents' decision.

The law is clear. The First Amendment fully protects Gow’s hobby and his other personal-time, content-creating sexual exploits with his wife. And quite unlike firing a chancellor, ousting a tenured professor triggers a robust disciplinary process designed precisely to protect the academic freedom and other free speech rights of even the most controversial faculty.

The Foundation laid that marker down last summer, when the hearing panel got the case.

Academic freedom generally protects faculty from punishment for what they do or say off the clock. The same law that shields faculty from getting fired or punished for their political opinions or associations also protects their right to create porn.

Pornography is controversial, but whether speech merits First Amendment protection is a legal, not a moral, determination — and for good reason. Bureaucrats don’t get to decide how we talk about politics, who we choose as friends, and whether or how we worship — because they can’t do it in a principled way.

Universities bound by the First Amendment must uphold the expressive rights of their faculty, especially when it is difficult or unpopular to do so. UW should show some backbone and uphold core free speech principles, not pander to politicians.

The Foundation has been consistent on that point.  Mr Gow should have been removed, or at a minimum reprimanded, as chancellor, for suppressing protected political speech.  "Just before LaCrosse State chancellor Joe Gow was removed from his post for conduct unbecoming, the university he headed got into trouble for attempting to thought-police the Young America's Foundation."

The Foundation's expanded mission is more important, with establishmentarian and contrarian politicians alike seeking to stifle dissenting points of view under the rubric of "fake news" or its euphemistic bastard cousin, "misinformation."