MADISON, Wis. (AP) — In a closely watched First Amendment rights case, a former University of Wisconsin campus chancellor who was fired after making pornographic films with his wife argued Friday for keeping his tenured teaching position even as he faces removal for unethical behavior.
Joe Gow, who had served as chancellor of UW-La Crosse for nearly 17 years, hoped to convince a personnel committee of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to recommend he be allowed to retain tenure and return to teaching communications courses.
Gow has been on paid leave from his faculty position since the regents fired him as chancellor in 2023, shortly after university leaders became aware of the videos that were posted on pornographic websites.
Gow’s behavior has been “unethical, hypocritical and unacceptable,” university attorney Wade Harrison told six regents who form the personnel committee on Friday.
“Enough is enough," he said. “Dr. Joe needs to go.”
A UW-La Crosse faculty committee unanimously recommended in July that Gow lose his faculty position, saying he exploited his position to generate more interest and revenue from the videos. University attorneys argued Friday that he should lose his tenured teaching position because he harmed the university’s reputation and interfered with its mission.
Gow has established that he is unable to recognize his own poor judgment, university attorneys argued in filings ahead of the hearing.
The regents personnel committee discussed the case behind closed doors after taking testimony Friday. Its recommendation, also secret, will then be taken up at a meeting of the full Board of Regents as soon as next week.
The case has garnered national attention both for the salaciousness of a high-profile university official making pornographic movies and publicly talking about it and the questions it raises about free speech rights.
Gow argued that his videos and two e-books he and his wife, Carmen, have published about their experiences in adult films are protected by the First Amendment.
“You don’t need the First Amendment to protect ‘The Star Spangled Banner,’” Gow’s attorney, Mark Leitner, told the committee. “You don’t need the First Amendment to protect easy and comforting speech. It’s exactly the opposite. We need the First Amendment precisely when the danger of stifling, controversial, unpopular speech is at its highest. And that’s what we have here.”
Harrison, the university's attorney, countered that the videos themselves are legal, but they are not protected speech under his employment contract.
“Gow’s pornography videos are not protected by the First Amendment,” Harrison said.
Gow has gotten what he wants, which is attention on his books and videos, Harrison said.
The regents asked no questions.
“It was a very ominous sign that no regent asked a question,” Gow said after the hearing. “That to me indicates that this has all been preordained.”
When asked if he would consider filing a lawsuit if his tenure is revoked, Gow said, “Would you blame us if we did?”
The school is pushing to fire Gow for unethical conduct, insubordination for refusing to cooperate with an investigation and violating computer policies. The UW-La Crosse employee handbook requires faculty to “exhibit a level of behavior supporting the university mission.”
Gow has maintained that he and his wife produced the pornographic materials on their own time. He insists the videos and the books never mentioned UW-La Crosse or his role at the university.
However, Gow was criticized in 2018 for inviting porn actor Nina Hartley to speak on campus. She was paid $5,000 out of student fees to appear. He developed the idea of bringing her to campus after shooting a pornographic video with her, the university said.
Gow and his wife's e-books were written under pseudonyms: “Monogamy with Benefits: How Porn Enriches Our Relationship” and “Married with Benefits — Our Real-Life Adult Industry Adventures." But they also star in a YouTube channel called “Sexy Healthy Cooking” in which the couple cooks meals with porn actors.
Gow's hope to return to teaching in the classroom is opposed by his department chair, Linda Dickmeyer. She said that because Gow has not taught for 20 years, he would be assigned general education courses, but she opposes allowing him to return to teaching in any role.
Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow and his wife, Carmen Wilson, take questions after a hearing before a committee that will determine whether he can teach after being fired as the campus leader for making pornographic videos on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, right, and his wife, Carmen Wilson, center, take questions after a hearing before a committee that will determine whether he can teach after being fired as the campus leader for making pornographic videos, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
FILE - This undated photo provided by University of Wisconsin system shows UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow. (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse via AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks careened through a manic Monday after President Donald Trump threatened to crank his tariffs higher, despite a stunning display showing how dearly Wall Street wants him to do the opposite.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% at the end of a day full of heart-racing reversals as battered financial markets try to figure out what Trump’s ultimate goal is for his trade war. If it’s to get other countries to agree to trade deals, he could lower his tariffs and avoid a possible recession. But if it’s to remake the economy and stick with tariffs for the long haul, stock prices may need to fall further.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 349 points, or 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by 0.1%.
All three indexes started the day sharply lower, and the Dow plunged as many as 1,700 points following even worse losses elsewhere in the world. But it suddenly surged to a gain of nearly 900 points in the late morning. The S&P 500, meanwhile, went from a loss of 4.7% to a leap of 3.4%, which would have been its biggest jump in years.
The sudden rise followed a false rumor that Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his tariffs, one that a White House account on X quickly labeled as “fake news.” That a rumor could move trillions of dollars’ worth of investments shows how much investors are hoping to see signs that Trump may let up on tariffs.
Stocks quickly turned back down, and shortly afterward, Trump dug in further and said he may raise tariffs more against China after the world’s second-largest economy retaliated last week with its own set of tariffs on U.S. products.
It’s a slap in the face to Wall Street because it suggests Trump may not care how much pain he inflicts on the market. Many professional investors had long thought that a president who used to crow about records reached under his watch would pull back on policies if they sent the Dow reeling.
On Sunday Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he wasn’t concerned about a sell-off and that “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
Trump has given several reasons for his stiff tariffs, including to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, which is a process that could take years. Trump on Sunday said he wanted to bring down the numbers for how much more the United States imports from other countries versus how much it sends to them.
Indexes nevertheless did keep swinging between losses and gains Monday after Trump’s latest tariff threat, in part because hope still remains in markets that negotiations may still come.
“We’re not calling the all-clear at all, but when you have this type of volatility in the market, of course you’re going to have back and forth” in markets not just day to day but also hour to hour, said Nate Thooft, a senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management.
“We’re all waiting for the next bit of information,” he said. “Literally a Truth Social tweet or an announcement of some sort about real negotiations could dramatically move this market. This is the world we live in right now.”
All that seemed certain Monday was the financial pain hammering investments around the world for a third day after Trump announced tariffs in his “Liberation Day.”
Stocks in Hong Kong plunged 13.2% for their worst day since 1997. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil dipped below $60 during the morning for the first time since 2021, hurt by worries that a global economy weakened by trade barriers will burn less fuel. Bitcoin sank below $79,000, down from its record above $100,000 set in January, after holding steadier than other markets last week.
Trump’s tariffs are an attack on the globalization that’s remade the world’s economy, which helped bring down prices for products on the shelves of U.S. stores but also caused production jobs to leave for other countries.
It also adds pressure on the Federal Reserve. Investors have become nearly conditioned to expect the central bank to swoop in as a hero by slashing interest rates to protect the economy during every downturn. But the Fed may have less freedom to act this time around because inflation remains higher than the Fed would like. And while lower interest rates can goose the economy, they can also put upward pressure on inflation.
“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, one of the most influential executives on Wall Street, wrote in his annual letter to shareholders Monday. “Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.”
In the bond market, Treasury yields rallied to recover some of their sharp drops from earlier weeks. Some of the big move may have been because of reduced expectations for cuts to interest rates by the Fed. Some analysts also said it could be due to investors outside of the United States wanting to pare their U.S. investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.20% from 4.01% late Friday.
Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 briefly fell more than 20% below its record set less than two months ago. If it finishes a day below that bar, it would be a big enough drop that Wall Street has a name for it. A “bear market” signifies a downturn that’s moved beyond a run-of-the-mill 10% drop, which happens every year or so, and has graduated into something more vicious.
The S&P 500, which sits at the heart of many investors’ 401(k) accounts, is coming off its worst week since COVID began crashing the global economy in March 2020.
All told, the index fell 11.83 points Monday to 5,062.25. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 349.26 to 37,965.60, and the Nasdaq composite added 15.48 to 15,603.26.
Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok. McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press writers Ayaka McGill, Paul Harloff, Matt Ott and Jiang Junzhe also contributed.
An electronic display shows financial information on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Federico DeMarco works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Chris Lagana works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the options floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
While a stock exchange trader sits in front of his monitors on the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany, the display board with the Dax curve shows a value of less than 20,000 points. (Arne Dedert/dpa via AP)
While a stock exchange trader sits in front of his monitors on the trading floor of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany, the display board with the Dax curve shows a value of less than 20,000 points. (Arne Dedert/dpa via AP)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
An electronic stock board shows that Nikkei stock average dropped over 2,900 Japanese yen in Tokyo Monday, April 7, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top right, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A person walks past an electronic stock board in Tokyo Monday, April 7, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
US President Donald Trump appears on a television screen at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
A screen displays financial news as traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
