LACROSSE, Wis. – The former chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrossse, Joe Gow, plans to appeal being removed from university’s faculty. Gow said he has requested a hearing before a faculty committee — a right he has under state law. The committee would recommend to the UW System regents whether he can keep his retirement job as a tenured communications professor. The regents have been unfriendly to Gow since revelations that had produced and performed in a series of explicit videos promoting healthy sex for older olks. He is 64. Before the revelations, Gow was planning to retire from the chancellorship and take a position on the university’s faculty, but his interim successor as chancellor moved to strip him entirely of rank on the active faculty. The successor, Betsy Morgan, who had been Gow’s chief vice chancellor, acted on a 300-page investigative report on Gow’s sexual sideline. Morgan has declined to release the report publicly, but to a news reporter Gow identified these charges:
> Co-uthoring two detailed autobiographical books with his wife about their evolving sex life and also producing a series of explicit videos on senior sexuality.
> Refusing to speak to an outside law firm investigating the matter unless he had an attorney present.
> Using UW-La Crosse computers to produce pornographic materials.
n an interview Gow denied using any state-owned equipment or state dollars to produce the books or videos. On whether the issue has eroded his ability teach, Gow was firm: Students, he said, value his presence and are eager to take his courses. In broad terms, Gow said: “It is really hard to be treated like a criminal when you haven’t done anything wrong. I really am curious how the administration is going to prove I did anything wrong.”
Opening in kitchen. The videos of Gow and wife Carmen Wilson typically opened with upscale kitchen scenes on the delights of vegan cooking. The couple, who moved i]easiky in porn industry circles in sunny climates, often had top-tier porn actors as guests helping out with food preparation. Everyone was fully clothed. Bedroom scenes that followed were just Gow and Wilson.