UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow is stepping down. What he's learned in 17 years on the job
Joe Gow, the longest-serving current chancellor in the University of Wisconsin System, announced plans Wednesday to step down as leader of UW-La Crosse at the end of the 2023-24 school year.
Gow, 62, will transition to a faculty role after more than 17 years leading the 9,400-student campus.
Enrollment at UW-La Crosse last fall was slightly larger than when Gow started in 2007, a remarkable feat for the chancellor of a regional campus at a time when fewer students are available to recruit and an increasing share of them are opting out of four-year college degrees.
The university's finances are also stronger than most other regional UW campuses, finishing the 2023 fiscal year without a deficit.
"It's a team effort, of course," Gow told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "If I've been successful at anything, the main thing I've done is getting the right people into the right leadership positions to make things happen."
Gow worked under four UW System presidents. His current boss, Jay Rothman, said Gow will be leaving the university "much better" than when he arrived.
“This is a hallmark of excellent stewardship," Rothman said in a statement. "He has provided a steady hand through challenging times and met the moment when we needed him."
Death of former colleague, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, played role in decision
Gow said he began thinking about stepping away from his high-stakes, high-pressure job after the death of former UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, who was diagnosed with cancer last summer and died just months later in February.
Blank's "tragic death reminded me that none of us will live forever, and I thought about how I want to spend my time," he said.
Gow is looking forward to having more time with family and returning to the classroom. Before moving into higher education administration, he spent 18 years teaching communication studies. There are contemporary media issues now that didn't exist when he last taught, like the demise of the local news industry, he said.
When Gow delivered his annual university address, for example, multiple reporters covered the event in the beginning of his UW-La Crosse chancellorship. When he broke the news about stepping down at this year's annual address, he said no journalists attended.
UW-La Crosse chancellor invited porn star to lecture on campus, sparking controversy
One of Gow's most controversial decisions was inviting Nina Hartley to speak on campus in 2018. In addition to being an adult film actress, Hartley has directed porn films and is a sex educator, a sex-positive feminist and an author.
About 70 students attended her lecture, "Fantasy vs. Reality: A critical view of adult media." Gow paid Hartley $5,000 from his discretionary office fund, not state tax dollars.
Gow saw the lecture as a stimulating discussion about an uncomfortable topic, and illustrated why free speech is a good thing for universities — a topic of value to Republicans who often feel conservative speakers are stifled on progressive college campuses.
Others saw it differently. Gow's invitation drew a reprimand from then-UW System President Ray Cross for "exercising poor judgement." The UW Board of Regents denied him a pay raise.
Five years removed from the episode, Gow said he believes it attracted positive attention for UW-La Crosse by branding the university as standing up for free speech. He noted enrollment didn't suffer afterward.
Political battles, divisions take toll on public universities
Another challenge for Gow has been the increasingly political nature of the job. He lamented the country's bitter political divisions and and how parties use public universities as chips in a partisan game to make points with their political bases.
UW-La Crosse received money for the first half of a new science building years ago. But the Republican-controlled Legislature has declined to fund the second half of the project for at least three state budgets. That includes the most recent budget cycle when the Prairie Springs Science Center ranked second in priority across the UW System and yet lower-ranked projects received funding.
Students, meanwhile, continue learning in a 1964 building that is prone to leaks and inaccessible to people with disabilities, Gow said.
During Gow's tenure, he was named a finalist in at least presidential search at an out-of-state university. He stuck with Wisconsin for 17 years.
"At the end of the day, I've been really lucky here," he said. "I've been able to lead in a style that's authentic and that means a lot."
Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow to step down, return to faculty
