MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents voted unanimously Friday to fire a communications professor who was seeking to retain tenure after his dismissal as chancellor of one of the system's campuses for making pornographic films.
Joe Gow, who had served as chancellor of UW-La Crosse for nearly 17 years, argued last week that he should be allowed to retain a teaching position on campus. But university attorneys argued he was unethical, violated terms of his employment contact, damaged the reputation of the university and interfered with its mission.
The regents met in closed session Friday morning before voting in public to fire Gow. There was no discussion in open session before the board voted.
Gow has been on paid leave from his back-up faculty position since the regents fired him as chancellor in 2023, shortly after university leaders became aware of the videos, which were posted on pornographic websites. 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. The university’s attorney countered that Gow's videos themselves are legal but they are not protected speech under his employment contract.
Gow said Friday that he plans to file a lawsuit against the university and accused the regents of stifling his free speech rights. He insisted in a statement that he produced the pornography on his own time without referencing the university system and questioned the system's commitment to academic freedom and freedom of expression.
“The people who fired me today aren't a ‘Board of Regents,’ they're a ‘Board of Hypocrites,’” Gow said in the statement. “They have zero credibility on free speech and expression.”
Zach Greenberg, an attorney with free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, called the regents' decision “a major blow to academic freedom and free speech rights.”
“FIRE has said time and time again: public universities cannot sacrifice the First Amendment to protect their reputations,” Greenberg said. “We're disappointed UW caved to donors and politicians by throwing a tenured professor under the bus.”
Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman has been working since he took the job in 2022 to navigate thorny relationships with Republican legislators who view the system as a liberal incubator. Last year, the GOP forced the system to scale back its diversity initiatives.
Rothman has been careful to avoid alienating conservatives any further as he seeks support for an $855 million increase for the system in the next state budget. Earlier this month his administration ordered university leaders to maintain neutral viewpoints in their public statements. Retaining Gow in any capacity could open up the system to more Republican criticism and torpedo any chance of securing the additional funding.
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 holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in communications. He served as director of the communication studies program at Alfred University in New York state in the 1990s, earning the school’s Excellence in Teaching Award three times.
But the chair of the UW-La Crosse communications department, Linda Dickmeyer, opposed Gow’s return to the classroom. She said that because Gow has not taught for 20 years, he would be assigned general education courses, but she opposes letting him teach in any role.
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)
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)
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)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Massive Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida's sparsely populated Big Bend region, bringing storm surge and high winds across the state's Gulf Coast communities before ripping into southern Georgia.
Hurricane Helene weakened to a tropical storm over the Carolinas with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) by mid-morning Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm will continue to weaken as it continues to move north across Georgia. At 11 a.m., Helene was centered about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Bryson City, North Carolina, and about 105 miles (165 kilometers) north-northeast of Atlanta, moving north at 32 mph (52 kph), the hurricane center in Miami reported.
Helene wobbled as it approached Florida's coast late Thursday before making landfall near the mouth of the Aucilla River with maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph (225 kph). That location was only about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year at nearly the same ferocity and caused widespread damage.
Evacuations were underway Friday morning in areas of Western North Carolina. The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office west of Asheville said it was helping with evacuations in in Cruso, Clyde, Canton and lower-lying parts of Waynesville.
So far, The Associated Press has confirmed seven deaths caused by Helene.
Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed two in Florida. One person was hit by a falling sign in Tampa's Ybor City neighborhood and another was killed when a tree fell onto a home in Dixie County.
In Wheeler County, Georgia, two people died during an apparent tornado, a local sheriff said.
Officials confirmed that two others were killed when trees fell on their homes in Anderson County, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
And North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper confirmed a second storm-related death resulting from a car accident on a flooded road in Catawba County, North Carolina.
Airports in Florida that closed due to Hurricane Helene will be reopened Friday, Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation Jared Perdue said. That includes airports in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland and Tallahassee.
At Orlando International Airport, Florida’s busiest, there had been 77 flight cancellations in the past 24 hours, as of Friday morning, according to FlightAware.
Airports in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, remained open Friday morning but were reporting large numbers of cancellations and heavy delays. By 8 a.m., nearly 300 flights to or from Charlotte, a major hub for American Airlines, had been canceled. Nearly 400 more, to or from Charlotte, were delayed, according to FlightAware.
At the larger Atlanta airport, more than 130 flights were canceled and more than 180 delayed, according to FlightAware.
On Friday morning, inspectors were out examining bridges and causeways along Florida's Gulf Coast to get them back open to traffic quickly, Perdue said.
In addition, 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) of roadway across Florida have been cleared of debris, Perdue said during a news conference in Tallahassee.
“Some of the causeways were underwater, so we have to inspect them and make sure they are safe to pass,” Perdue said. “We had a lot of storm surge up and down the west coast. We had a lot of roads underwater.”
As of 9:15 a.m. Friday, some 3.2 million people across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee were without power, according to poweroutage.us.
Most of the outages, were in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — each with more than 1 million outages.
Almost 45% of homes and businesses in South Carolina were without power Friday morning. Whole counties were without electricity as winds gusted to near hurricane force. Trees or other debris blocked every major road leading into Greenwood, a city of about 22,000 people about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of Columbia, Greenwood County officials said on social media.
Crews of linemen were stationed across the region, ready to begin the process of restoring power as soon as the winds from Helene died down.
Flooding along Florida's coast began well before Hurricane Helene made landfall, with rapidly rising waters reported from as far south as Fort Myers on the state's Gulf Coast.
Early Friday, sheriff's officials in Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located, were using a large ATV to rescue people who were stranded by rising waters.
In Cedar Key, an old Florida-style island off the Gulf Coast, many homes, motels and businesses were flooded. Not even the city's fire rescue building was spared.
"It actually blew out the storm panels on the front doors. Blew out one of the breakaway walls on the back and two entry doors,” the agency posted online. “It appears that we had about 6 feet or better of water inside.”
Storm surge is the level at which sea water rises above its normal level.
Much like the way a storm’s sustained winds do not include the potential for even stronger gusts, storm surge doesn’t include the wave height above the mean water level.
Surge is also the amount above what the normal tide is at a time, so a 15-foot storm surge at high tide can be far more devastating than the same surge at low tide.
The most common way to measure a hurricane’s strength is the Saffir-Simpson Scale that assigns a category from 1 to 5 based on a storm’s sustained wind speed at its center, with 5 being the strongest.
A man lights charcoal to cook dinner in his flooded home after the passage of Hurricane Helene in Guanimar, Artemisa province, Cuba, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Charles Starling, a lineman with Team Fishel, is pelted with rain as he walks by a row of electrical line trucks stage in a field in The Villages, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in preparation for damage from Hurricane Helene. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken at 5:46 p.m. EDT and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Helene in the Gulf of Mexico moving towards Florida, Thursday, Sept. 26 2024. (NOAA via AP)
