University of Alabama trustees vote to refund $26M gift over abortion ban controversy
The University of Alabama gave back a philanthropist’s $26.5 million donation and took his name off the law school Friday, a week after he called on students to boycott the institution over the state’s restrictive new abortion ban.
Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr., a 70-year-old Florida real estate investor who didn’t attend the school, said he has no doubt the board of trustees acted in response to his remarks.
And he complained that the state of Alabama was only reinforcing its reputation as “the land of the backward,” full of “hicks.”
University officials denied the decision had anything to do with Culverhouse’s stand on the abortion law, and said it was prompted by his attempts to dictate how the cash should be spent.
Culverhouse’s pledge, announced in September, was the biggest contribution ever made to the university.
In return, the law school was renamed the Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law.
Within minutes of the trustees’ vote, a maintenance crew had removed his name and the university had wired him a $21.5 million refund of the money he had already given the university toward fulfilling his pledge.
Alabama’s toughest-in-the-nation abortion ban, passed last month and set to take effect in November, would make terminating a pregnancy a crime punishable by 10 years to life in prison for the provider, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Last week, Culverhouse urged students to boycott the university over the ban, saying: “I don’t want anybody to go to that law school, especially women, until the state gets its act together.”
Hours later, Alabama announced it was considering giving back his money — a move it said was underway even before Culverhouse spoke out.
University Chancellor Finis E. St. John IV said Friday that Culverhouse’s expectations for the use of the gift were “inconsistent with the essential values of academic integrity and independent administration” at Alabama.
St. John said that “for these reasons and for these reasons alone,” he recommended returning Culverhouse’s gift.
Culverhouse acknowledged telling the university that the law school should admit more students and that his donation was intended to fund scholarships to achieve that. But he said he thought the matter had been resolved.
The businessman and attorney did not attend Alabama, but his parents did, and the business school bears the name of Hugh Culverhouse Sr., a wealthy tax lawyer, developer and philanthropist in his own right who owned the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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With AP
