Purdue Building to Nix Name of Papa John's Founder

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. -

Purdue University stripped the name of the founder of the Papa John's pizza chain from an economic research center and offered to return the $8 million he donated to the school in April after he allegedly made racial slurs last month, the Journal & Courier reported.

John Schnatter's name was removed from the Center of Economic Research and also from Purdue's webpage, the Lafayette, Indiana, newspaper reported.

Purdue's board of trustees conducted a vote Friday morning to disassociate the school from Schnatter and offer to return the money he gave the school in April.

"The board believes this action is necessary to avoid distraction from the center's work, counterproductive division on the campus, and any inference of any deviation from the university's often-stated stance on tolerance and racial relations," the trustees said in a statement.

The announcement came hours after Ball State University, Schnatter's alma mater, said it would not remove Schnatter's name from a campus building, The Indianapolis Star reported.

Schnatter's comments about race relations, including alleged racial slurs were made public in a report July 11 by Forbes.com, the Journal & Courier reported.

The center's name will be changed back to the Purdue University Research Center in Economics, the Star reported.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels said Purdue had received $1 million of the $8 million pledged by the Schnatter Family Foundation, the Journal & Courier reported.

David Hummels, dean of the Krannert School of Management, said the center was prepared to adjust.

"Our intention was to use the gift money to support faculty hiring," Hummels told the Journal & Courier. "We believe we can still be successful in attracting support for that purpose because the center has done, and will continue to do, excellent work. But it might be on a longer timescale than we originally planned."

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