What the ex-chancellor will do now.

When I last spoke with Joseph Gow, the longtime university administrator had seen the porn videos he made with his wife go viral; lost his job as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse due to this virality; and launched a vigorous defense of an officer's First Amendment right to have sex on camera. The 64-year-old Gow and his wife, colleague Carmen Wilson, had hired adult actors to film porn with them. The extremely steamy videos (published under her username “Sexy Happy Couple”) mix vanilla sex scenes with vegan cooking segments (fully clothed, of course).

Last week, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Directors voted unanimously to strip Gow of his professorship after the university system alleged “unethical and potentially illegal conduct” related to the porn as well as IT policy violations involving his university laptop.

I spoke with Gow over Zoom about the Wisconsin Republicans, how much money he makes from OnlyFans and what's next. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

(I offered the University of Wisconsin System an opportunity to comment. It did not respond in time for publication.)

Dan Kois: What reason did the Board of Regents give in their decision to revoke your term and fire you?

Joseph Gow: They didn't actually make a written decision. A week ago we had a hearing with the regents themselves and they didn't ask me a single question. When it came to the vote, I guess I was hoping that there would be at least one or two people on that 17, 18-person board who would say, “Hey, that's not right.” But it was a unanimous vote, so here I am, without this job anymore.

The university has accused you of misuse of your laptop and other violations.

These are the kinds of things they try to conjure up to distract from the fact that I haven't mentioned the university or my role as chancellor in any of our videos. In the Supreme Court case they quote: Roe v. San DiegoThis shows that a public employer can fire an employee for disturbing comments – this was a San Diego police officer who appeared in porn in his uniform and then took it off. So it was really clear: This guy is a San Diego police officer. Nobody will know Hey, he's the rector of a universityunless you know me personally.

You don't take off your academic garb in the videos.

Yes, that's exactly right. Whoever reported us, it's like someone said, “I'm going to go see a nude beach,” and they go to the beach, leave their clothes on, look around and say, “This is terrible.” “And that's exactly what happened to us.

You told me when we spoke in the spring that you were sure Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature would push the Regents to take this action. Do you still think that's the case?

Oh, more than ever. They haven't commented on this lately, but there are statements on the record from state senators and Republicans when this came out: “This guy should be fired immediately!” The system president doesn't want to upset the right-wing people who are leading the way with funding .

Do you plan to fight this decision?

Well, I'm really fortunate to have an attorney from FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. You want to file a lawsuit and we are happy to do that. It will be a federal lawsuit, a First Amendment case.

You will no longer receive a government paycheck. How is your OnlyFans?

Luckily, every time it's talked about, people are curious, and it's great because it's a human curiosity. We make a bit of money there, and we'll need that now because my health insurance – and my wife's – will be lost.

We make around $2,000 to $3,000 a month. There are some people there who make millions of dollars, but we don't do it that way. We only have the videos available if you pay and want to watch them. We don't do custom interactions. People said, ‘Can I call you, talk to you and pay you?’ That’s not our thing. We don't care about that. We're flattered that people want that, but that's just not what we care about.

You've had a lot of downtime this summer while waiting for the Regents to rule. Have you both made new videos?

No, we don't have that. At the risk of sounding like the academic I am, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle applies. If you observe something, change it. We used to just do what we wanted to do. But now we know everyone is watching.

It's interesting that the back and forth and interaction that seems to really be required to make a living in adult entertainment doesn't particularly turn you both on.

I would say to someone younger who might want to do this: Be prepared to work very hard. It's very competitive. People want a relationship, that interaction, and that takes a lot of time and energy.

If you want to be successful on OnlyFans, you need office hours, just like you do as a university professor.

That's exactly right. Yes. Night line I did a story with us and a woman who was, I think, a high school teacher in Missouri who was on OnlyFans – much younger – and got fired from her job. And she said, “Well, that's okay because I make $2 million a year on OnlyFans.” I was like, “What?”

I guess that's not the experience of a 60-year-old person on OnlyFans.

No, not at all. And we don't want that. The real reason we got into this was because we wanted to experiment with free expression and ultimately see if my university system lived up to the commitments made. And we now know that this is not the case.

Last time we spoke, you said that one of the reasons you started putting your videos online was because of an interest in free speech. It seems very unusual to me that someone would risk their livelihood in this academic debate. Do you wish you hadn't taken that risk? Or do you think it was worth it?

I think that's a good thing. It is not easy. But when I came into academia, I came as a language professor, as a communications professor. I also have a degree in journalism and truly believe in the First Amendment freedoms that make this a great country. During these years as an administrator, I have seen how the world has changed a lot with the advent of the Internet and new platforms like OnlyFans. And so we got to a point where we said, ‘Well, this is a revolution.’ Let’s be a part of it.”

And here we are, and you pay a price for it. But I wanted to teach, talk and research again. And even though the thing we're dealing with right now doesn't take place in a classroom, I think in many ways it's still about teaching, talking, and research. People are paying attention and want to have a dialogue. And I'm here with you right now and I'm really enjoying talking about these topics. I really don't want to just sit at home.

Carmen, are you in the room like last time?

Gow: Yes, she is here.

What great vegan recipe have you made lately?

Gow: What was on the pizza we ate last night?

Carmen Wilson: Well, we get a CSA box. Do you know CSA, Community Supported Agriculture?

Yes.

Wilson: We get all these things that I probably wouldn't necessarily buy.