The University of Wisconsin system’s Board of Regents fired a campus chancellor after learning that he and his wife had appeared in several pornographic videos. Joe Gow, who had led UW-La Crosse for nearly two decades, said that he believes the board trampled on his free-speech rights.
Jay Rothman, president of the Wisconsin system, said in a statement that the revelations about Gow’s involvement in the adult-film industry inflicted “significant reputational harm” on the institution. Gow’s 2006 contract said he could be fired for behavior “that may be adverse to, or competitive or inconsistent with the interests of” the system.
Gow and his wife maintained accounts on social-media and porn websites with the username “Sexy Happy Couple,” and published two books about the adult-film industry using pseudonyms. Gow told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his adult-film activities were a personal endeavor and didn’t involve university time or resources.
“I just think we have people on the board that say they’re for free speech, but they really aren’t,” he said. “And I don’t know how they will explain this.”
Gow invited an adult-film star to speak at UW-La Crosse in 2018, prompting the president of the Wisconsin system then to reprimand Gow for “poor judgment.” The board later denied him a pay raise. At the time, Gow said he was carrying out a system directive to do more to promote free speech.
Gow, the longest-tenured chancellor in the Wisconsin system, had planned to step down at the end of this academic year and join the communications faculty as a tenured professor. Rothman said in his statement about Gow’s firing that he had asked for the interim leader of UW-La Crosse to review Gow’s tenured status. The president also said he has hired a law firm to conduct an investigation. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, University of Wisconsin system, The Chronicle)
The federal government is investigating two additional colleges over complaints about discrimination based on “shared ancestry,” a category that includes alleged mistreatment of Jewish students or Muslim students. The complaint against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill concerns anti-Israel comments made by a faculty member and a guest speaker this fall, according to a document posted online by a pro-Israel group. George Mason University is also under review. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has opened 27 investigations into possible shared-ancestry discrimination at colleges in the past two months. (U.S. Department of Education, Voice4Israel of North Carolina)
A local jury ordered the University of Washington to pay $16 million to five Black campus police officers who said they had endured racist comments and racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation for years from white colleagues and superiors, who created a hostile workplace. The university said it was considering an appeal of the verdict and noted that its campus police department has new leaders. The lawsuit said the university had known about the problems but did little about them. (The Seattle Times)
The University of Virginia may create a group to advise the president on when to speak about current events. President Jim Ryan drew mixed reactions in October for a statement he released about the Israel-Hamas war. At the most recent meeting of UVa’s board, Ryan said that a committee could help him navigate such situations; he also mentioned the Kalven Report, a 1967 document that calls for colleges to remain neutral on political and social matters. The issue of institutional neutrality has risen to prominence in recent weeks as students and faculty have demanded that their colleges take stances on the Middle East conflict. (The Daily Progress, The Chronicle)
The Federal Trade Commission sued Grand Canyon University, accusing the Christian institution of deceptive advertising, illegal telemarketing, and misrepresenting itself as a nonprofit college when it is a for-profit business. The large Arizona-based university called the FTC’s allegations “unsubstantiated” and said it would refute them. Grand Canyon is already in a fight over its tax status with the U.S. Department of Education, which in October fined it nearly $38 million for misrepresenting the costs of its doctoral programs. (Reuters, FTC, Education Department)
Belt-tightening measures are taking effect at two New York colleges struggling with enrollment declines. Clarkson University will dissolve its School of Arts and Sciences and phase out its nine majors in the humanities, social sciences, and communication over the next three years. Fewer than 2 percent of students are enrolled in those programs, according to the university. Rockland Community College, part of the State University of New York system, will require faculty and staff to take nine furlough days between January and June to help close a $3.4-million deficit. (North Country Public Radio, Rockland/Westchester Journal News)
The University of Massachusetts at Lowell agreed to pay an undisclosed sum as part of a settlement with a Black former student who said in a lawsuit that he had been kicked off the baseball team over his complaints about the head coach’s alleged racism. Cedric Rose, a star on the team, said his dismissal meant he would not be seen by professional scouts. The coach stepped down, Lowell said, and the athletics department has reformed its approach to race relations. (GBH)
Two California universities have returned nearly all of the Native American remains and artifacts to the tribes from which they were taken in the 1800s and 1900s, as required by federal and state laws. The University of California at Los Angeles has returned 96 percent of the items in its possession, and California State University at Long Beach has returned 70 percent. The two institutions are outliers; most other campuses in the UC and Cal State systems, and elsewhere in the United States, have made little progress in returning artifacts to Native tribes, a process called repatriation. (CalMatters, The Chronicle)
Division I colleges are considering reforms of the NCAA’s transfer policies that have been the target of a lawsuit by seven states. Under the proposed changes, athletes who have transferred more than once would not need to be on a campus for a year before they could compete, academic-eligibility requirements for transfers would be raised, colleges that don’t meet those standards would lose NCAA money, and colleges would be pushed to retain and graduate transfers. (Yahoo Sports)
