Hugh Culverhouse doesn’t care if University of Alabama officials don’t want his money

Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. Photo courtesy University of Alabama

Florida businessman Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. doesn’t think much of University of Alabama (UA) officials threatening to send his donations back.

“I’m sorry for the university,” he told Florida Politics, “but f— you, and have a nice day.”

Culverhouse on Wednesday called on prospective UA students to boycott UA until a controversial new abortion law gets repealed or struck down. The move made headlines in part because Culverhouse remains the biggest donor in the university’s history.

The same day as Culverhouse issued his call to action, the university’s chancellor, Finis E. St. John IV, released a statement.

The message? Maybe Culverhouse can have his money back.

But the statement also asserted any disagreement between the donor and school had nothing to do with state law, over which university officials have no control.

“As part of an ongoing dispute, last week Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. asked for the return of $10 million, repeating numerous demands about the operations of the University of Alabama School of Law,” the statement reads.

“Consequently, yesterday Chancellor St. John recommended to the board of trustees that it return all of Mr. Culverhouse’s $21.5 million donation to the Law School … which will be acted on at the Board’s meeting next week.”

Culverhouse said that’s a mischaracterization of any disagreement with the school. He said he paid $11 million of a gift to the school upfront and had an agreement to pay the remaining balance of the donation over four years.

But part of that meant he’d have involvement in decisions at the school.

He disagreed with the law school dean about upping entrance requirements, instead saying the school needed to increase its enrollment. But that concern was assuaged when the school announced a plan to grow enrollment 8 percent each year.

The university statement said: “Donors may not dictate University administration.”

As far as abortion, Culverhouse said he did say no endowment chair should be appointed until the abortion issue gets resolved.

Gov. Kay Ivey this month signed into law a bill barring abortion at all stages of pregnancy. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest.

Culverhouse said that’s a knowing attempt to conflict with the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.

“Saudi Arabia is more liberal in granting abortions than Alabama,” Culverhouse said.

“What really f—ing pisses me off is if I sent my daughter to Alabama and she got gang-raped by 15 to 20 men, she could not obtain an abortion without the doctor going to prison. But a lot of rape cases, they get probation, or get 5 years, 15 or 20 years. A doctor faces 99 godd— years.”

The UA law school has born Culverhouse’s name since he made his large donation in September.

But he notes that a $6.5 million endowment providing for students to attend University of Alabama’s business school, which is named for his father Hugh Culverhouse Sr., provides for more individuals to get an education.

Yet UA has only been arguing about sending the law school money back.

Culverhouse noted, though, that his boycott extends far beyond the university. He has called on all international commerce to boycott Alabama. The school represents a small part of that.

“I’m far more concerned with Mercedes and all the car companies doing business in Alabama,” he said.

And Culverhouse said he would make a similar call for a state issuing such severe restrictions on women’s reproductive health. That includes Florida.

Notably, multiple abortion restrictions were filed this year in Florida, though none passed. But Rep. Mike Hill, a Pensacola Republican, told the Pensacola News-Journal he intended to file a bill similar to Alabama’s next year.

“Mike Hill got told by God to do that,” Culverhouse said. “But you can tell Mike Hill that God and Jesus talked to me last night and they said you f— anybody who violates Supreme Court law. So I’m following God.

“Maybe his God and my God are schizo-f—ing-phrenic, or maybe he should stop using religion to go after women.”