MADISON Wis. — Unknown for sure is how and when Jay Rothman learned that the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse was producing pornographic videos. But as president of the UW System regents Rothman was outraged. Rothman called an emergency meeting of the UW regents. He wanted Gow fired immediately. The regents emerged from the three-hour closed-door-meeting on December 27, and Rothman announced the decision and said it was unanimous. The meeting, had the earmarks of a kangaroo court. Gow, the popular chief at UW’s LaCrosse 10,000-studenht campus for 17 years, wasn’t invited to defend himself.
Problematic secrecy
Although the decision was a-unanimous, it’s not known what went at the closed-door three-hour single agenda meeting:
> Were any members of the 18-member Board reluctant to fire Gow without a hearing and were either talked or bullied out it?
> Did the regents view the videos, none of which were shot on campus or involving campus personnel, students or resources?
> Did any regents even suggest an appeal route for Gow?
> Did any regent consider Gow’s videos could fit easily free expression and be consistent into the Board’s policy to encourage free expression?
The second round
Rothman’s outrage didn’t end with firing Gow. He called another meeting, this two days later, to press for Gow to be denied a faculty professorship – even though such is routine when a top-tier campus administrator retires. Gow, age 63, had announced plans earlier to retire after spring semester. It’s believed that regents had realized by this juncture it may be exceeding its authority and could be facing ramifications in court. Any decisions at this send meeting, on December 29, were not announced.
UW System regents
The decision to fire UW-LaCrosse Chancellor Joe Gow was reported after the meeting in December 27 as unanimous, But as a closed-door meeting, there was no record of how strongly that individual regents felt, nor of whether soke had reservations or qualms, nor of the dynamics of the discussion. The regents:
Angela Adams, Milwaukee; Robert Atwell, Green Bay; Amy Buemenfeld Bogost, Madison; Evan Brenkus, Green Bay; Héctor Colόn, Milwaukee; Mike Jones, Milwaukee; Jim Kreuser, Kenosha; Edmund Manydeeds III, Eau Claire;John Miller, Madison; Cris Peterson, Grantsburg; Joan; Prince, Milwaukee; Ashok Rai, Green Bay; Jay Rothman, Milwaukee; Jennifer Staton, Kenosha; Mark Tyler, Viroqua; Jill Underly, Madison; Dana Wachs, Eau Claire; Karen Walsh, Madison; and Kyle Weatherly. Milwaukee.
Rothman. As president of the University of Wisconsin System, it was Jay Rothman who convened the Board of Regents to fire the $230,000-a-year chancellor of the LaCrosse campus on the eve of the chancellor’s retirement. Rothman didn’t like that Gow and his wife had a sideline producing sex videos. Gow’s response: Rothman had run rough-shod over his right to victim-less free expression, which is a core academic value. Further, says Gow, the videos were unrelated to his role as chancellor
Rothman profile
In 2022 Jay Rothman, 63 at the time, was appointed president of the 23-campus University of Wisconsin System with 160,000 students. Rothmann was chosen over another finalist — Jim Schmidt, chancellor at UW-Eau Claire and a former vice president at Winona State University Minnesota. Rothman’s background was in law. He had been chief executive of the law firm Foley & Lardner for 11 years. Foley has 1,100 lawyers – one of te largest law firms in the country. It has 10,000 clients with offices in three international cities and 22 U.S. cities, including Milwaukee and Madison. As a lawyer, Rothman’s work was primarily in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate governance. His duties also included human resources, which would seem to have equipped him to handle delicate personnel issues. A void in his pedigree is First Amendment law and free expression. He holds an undergrad degree from Marquette University and a law degree from Harvard.