a $100 million gift from the estate of alumnus Marvin Mann. This was the largest single-donor gift ever made to a higher education institution in Alabama.
=== LGBTQ rights ===
Samford has been involved in several well publicized incidents in which the university rejected LGBTQ+ students' requests to form student organizations or refused to work with Christian groups that were LGBTQ+ affirming. In 2017, President Westmoreland rejected Samford Together, an organization that sought to create a space for students to discuss topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity “in an open-minded and accepting environment,” even though the organization had been approved by both the Student Government Association and the faculty. SAFE Samford (Students, Alumni, & Friends for Equality) coordinated a letter writing campaign in support of Samford Together and published these letters on its website. SAFE Samford was founded in 2011.
Similar actions occurred again in 2022. In late August, Samford administration “uninvited” …
