University of Alabama

The University of Alabama’s board of trustees voted to return a recent $21.5 million gift from the university’s largest donor after the philanthropist called on students to boycott the school over the state’s severe abortion ban, local media reported Friday. The vote wrapped up a two-week conflict between the university and Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr., a 70-year-old Florida real estate investor and lawyer whose pledge in September to donate a record $26.5 million led the university to praise this generosity publicly and rename its law school after him; it has been the “Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law” since last fall. He has already given $21 million, which the university will now return, and the school’s name will revert to the University of Alabama School of Law. Friday afternoon, the university removed Culverhouse’s name from display.

The university system has denied that its decision is a response to Culverhouse’s comments, citing a longer-running dispute that, it said, involved the philanthropist wanting to dictate the terms of […]