Entrance sign at the University of Alabama. Photo: Katherine Welles/Shutterstock.com

So much for the University of Alabama Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law.

The university's board of trustees on Friday voted to restore the name to the University of Alabama School of Law and return $21.5 million to its namesake donor after a public dispute involving the state's abortion ban and accusations of donor meddling.

The move was not unexpected. University Chancellor Finis St. John recommended returning Culverhouse's donation and stripping his name from the school in a memo to the trustees last week, just as Culverhouse called for students to boycott the university in a bid to pressure lawmakers to roll back the law.

The spat marks an extraordinary public dissolution of a relationship between a law school and a key donor.

“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,” Culverhouse said in a statement released after the vote. “I want to make clear that I never demanded that $21.5 million be refunded and wonder if the university is attempting to silence my opinions by their quick response. I will not be silenced.”

Culverhouse, an attorney and real estate developer based in Florida, pledged $27.5 million to the law school last fall, after which the school was renamed in his honor. It was the single largest donation in the university's history. (Of the pledged amount, only $21.5 million has been paid thus far—the amount the university is returning to Culverhouse.) But the relationship between Culverhouse and the law school soured over the following months, according to both sides.

University officials said that Culverhouse made repeated demands of the law school and tried to dictate its operations. Culverhouse said he pushed law Dean Mark Brandon to increase the school's enrollment and use his donation to extend more scholarships to attract students. He contends that Brandon resisted an enrollment increase in order to protect the school's U.S. News & World Report ranking. (The campus is currently ranked No. 25.) None of the $21.5 million has  been spent—which Culverhouse said contributed to his frustration with the law school.

The fraught relationship between Culverhouse and the university appears to have come to a head last week when the donor issued his call for a boycott of the university. Culverhouse later said in an interview that his boycott was not intended specifically for the law school, which enrolls a relatively small percentage of students from out of state. But rather he hopes to discourage out-of-state undergraduates from coming to the university as long as the abortion ban is in place.

Culverhouse graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 1974, but his family has strong ties the University of Alabama, where both his parents attended. The university's business school is named for his father, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse Sr.

When Culverhouse's donation was announced last September, the law school said the funds would be used to establish an endowment to pursue innovations including a modernized library, fund student scholarships, expand the school's physical presence and generate more career opportunities for students.