2 Wisconsin Chancellors, Tainted by Controversies, Are Denied Raises

The University of Wisconsin system’s governing board has denied a performance raise to its longest-serving chancellor, Joe Gow, who leads the La Crosse campus, following a controversy over Gow’s decision to host a porn star’s speech on the campus, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

The board gave raises to 10 of the 13 chancellors in a closed meeting last week. The awards ranged from $14,421 to $72,668, the newspaper reported.

Gow invited the adult-film star Nina Hartley to the campus in part, he said, in response to the system’s 2017 revamped free-speech policy, which charged chancellors with advancing free speech on their campuses. The policy was applauded by the system president, Raymond W. Cross.

But Cross condemned Gow’s decision to bring Hartley to the campus and threatened to withhold Gow’s future raise.

“I understand and appreciate your commitment to freedom of expression and public discourse,” Cross wrote.

But “as chancellor, you need to exercise better judgment when dealing with matters such as these,” he said.

Gow maintains that he was promoting the free-speech policy when he invited Hartley, who has a nursing degree, to speak about consent and sexuality. “I thought that’s what people wanted,” Gow told The Chronicle on Monday. But “that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

Given Cross’s reaction, Gow said he wasn’t shocked by the regents’ decision to withhold a raise.

“I wasn’t surprised entirely, but I was intrigued that I was being excluded from something that was being given to everybody else,” he said. “I don’t do my job for the compensation. I do it because I want to make a difference as a leader, and I’m proud of the performance of our university.”

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The regents also withheld a raise from the Whitewater campus’s chancellor, Beverly A. Kopper, following an investigation that determined that her husband had sexually harassed female staff members. An additional investigation into Kopper’s husband was opened in the fall and is still underway, the newspaper reported.

A former graduate student who worked in the chancellor’s office told The Chronicle in September that she had been subjected to multiple incidents of harassment by Kopper’s husband, Alan (Pete) Hill, who she said had hugged her despite objections, kissed her, and told her she was attractive.

The Madison chancellor, Rebecca Blank, got the largest raise, according to the newspaper, increasing her total salary to $582,617.

The raises were awarded in part due to increased responsibilities following a restructuring that merged the system’s 13 two-year campuses into some of the four-year campuses, said a system spokeswoman, Heather LaRoi.

“It is essential that we remain competitive with our peers on chancellor pay, especially as we expand the duties of our chancellors through restructuring and as they implement our strategic plan to enhance student success, increase efficiency, and improve communities,” LaRoi wrote in a statement to The Chronicle.

Wisconsin’s “chancellor salaries remain well below their peers in other states, and a reinvestment will ensure that we continue to have quality leadership,” she wrote. “These are demanding jobs, and today’s increases are based on merit and performance.”

Follow Cailin Crowe on Twitter at @cailincrowe, or email her at cailin.crowe@chronicle.com.