The University of Alabama voted to return a $26.5 million gift from a donor who recently encouraged students to boycott the school over Alabama’s controversial new abortion law.
Philanthropist Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. pledged a record $26.5 million to the university in September, $21.5 million of which had already been given to the school by the 70-year-old Florida resident. But in a turn, the school’s 15-person board of trustees voted Friday to return the money and change the name of the university’s law school, which had been named after Culverhouse.
Culverhouse said the board of trustees is returning the money in retaliation for his comments on the abortion law, which bans abortion in every instance, except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.
“I don’t want anybody to go to that law school, especially women, until the state gets its act together,” Culverhouse told the Associated Press.
The university disputes the claim that it was returning the money because of Culverhouse’s remarks, saying instead that the refund was because Culverhouse has made “numerous demands” about how the university is operated and that donors “may not dictate University administration.”
Culverhouse has donated more than $30 million to the university over the years.
