MADISON, Wisconsin — In a high-profile First Amendment rights case, a former University of Wisconsin president who was fired after making a pornographic film with his wife prepared to argue Friday that he should keep his tenured professorship despite being at risk of being fired for unethical behavior.
Joe Goh, who served as president of UW-La Crosse for nearly 17 years, hoped to persuade the personnel committee of the University of Wisconsin Board of Trustees to recommend that he remain in office and be allowed to teach communications courses.
Goh has been on paid leave since being fired as president in 2023, shortly after the university learned of the videos posted on a pornographic website.
The UW-La Crosse faculty council unanimously recommended in July that Gow lose his professorship, saying he used his position to generate more attention and revenue from his videos. University lawyers plan to argue Friday that he should lose his tenured professorship because he has damaged the university’s reputation and interfered with its mission.
University lawyers argued in a pretrial filing that Ko proved he could not admit to any wrongdoing.
“This alone poses a serious risk to the university if Gow remains in his position. Moreover, the university’s reputation has been damaged, and the damage will undoubtedly be worse if Gow returns to the classroom,” the attorneys said.
The Regents’ Committee on Personnel was scheduled to discuss the case in private after the testimony Friday, and the recommendations, which were kept confidential, are scheduled to be discussed at a full Board of Regents meeting next week.
The incident received national attention for the obscenity of a prominent university official producing a pornographic film and for publicly discussing it, raising questions about freedom of speech.
Go argued that the videos and two e-books he and his wife, Carmen, published about their experiences in adult films are protected by the First Amendment.
“It would be wholly incompatible with the First Amendment and the Board of Trustees’ fidelity to the free-speech philosophy to silence or punish speech on a college campus that is lawful and does not substantially harm the college’s mission,” Gouw’s attorney, Mark Lightner, wrote in a pretrial brief.
The school is seeking to fire Gou for unethical behavior, insubordination by failing to cooperate with an investigation, and violation of computer policy. The UW-La Crosse employee handbook requires faculty to “exercise a level of conduct that supports the mission of the university.”
Ko claims that he and his wife produced the pornographic material on their own time. He claims that in the videos and book, he never mentioned anything about UW-La Crosse or his role at the university.
But Goh was criticized in 2018 for inviting porn star Nina Hartley to speak on campus. She was paid $5,000 out of student tuition to appear. The university said it came up with the idea of bringing her to campus after filming a pornographic video with her.
Ko and his wife’s e-books are 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,” where the couple cook meals with porn stars.
Gou’s desire to return to teaching in the classroom was met with opposition from his department chair, Linda Dickmeyer. She said Gou would be assigned a liberal arts degree because he had not taught in 20 years, but she opposed allowing him to return to teaching in any capacity.
