NEW YORK— Denzel Washington has donated $2.25 million to Fordham University, his alma mater.

The university said Monday that Washington has given $2 million to endow the Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre, and another $250,000 to establish a scholarship for a minority undergraduate student studying theater at Fordham.

Phylicia Rashad, who played Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has joined the school’s faculty as the first Denzel Washington Chair in Theatre. Washington cited the late Bob Stone, who was a theater professor at Fordham, for inspiring him.