TAKE IT BACK

University of Alabama Returns $21.5M to Donor Who Pushed Boycott Over Abortion Law

The school also stripped Hugh Culverhouse Jr.’s name from the law school.

The University of Alabama’s board of trustees has voted to return a $21.5 million donation from a top donor and take his name off the law school after he called for a boycott of the state over its restrictive abortion law, NPR reports. The university on Friday said it would return Hugh Culverhouse Jr.’s donation after he publicly pushed students to boycott the school over its support of Alabama’s near-total abortion ban. Culverhouse Jr., a Florida attorney who is the school’s largest donor, pledged last year to donate $26.5 million to the school over the course of four years. “The action taken by the Board today was a direct result of Mr. Culverhouse's ongoing attempts to interfere in the operations of the Law School,” the school’s vice chancellor for communication, Kellee Reinhart, said. “That was the only reason the Board voted to remove his name and return his money.” In his own statement, Culverhouse said he “expected this response” from the university. “I will not allow my family's name to be associated with an educational system that advocates a state law which discriminates against women, disregards established Federal law and violates our Constitution,” he said.