Quietly and without notice, Auburn University renamed the building on its campus named in honor of convicted felon and former Republican Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard four years after a jury found him guilty of criminal violations of the state’s ethics code.
The notification came to APR a day after it published a column calling for Auburn to rename the facility that bears Hubbard’s name. Mike Clardy, Auburn’s assistant vice president for communications and marketing, notified APR that the facility was renamed in April.
“We saw your story and wanted to confirm that the name of the CASIC Building was changed in April shortly after the court’s ruling and at the request of Mr. Hubbard,” Clardy said in an email.
However, the official directory of Auburn’s research park still lists the building as the Hubbard Center For Advanced Science, Innovation and Commerce, which is why APR was surprised at the university’s notice.
A screenshot of the website of the Auburn technology park.
At Auburn University, the Hubbard Center stood for nearly four years with its name unchanged despite Hubbard’s conviction by a Lee County jury in June 2016.
In April, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld six of the charges against Hubbard. According to Clardy, after the ALSC ruling, the building was renamed “at the request of Mr. Hubbard.”
Hubbard is due to start his four-year sentence in state prison within the next two weeks.
