Vote in a poll: Controversy and rumors continue to swirl around Oral Roberts University and President Richard Roberts has taken an indefinite leave of absence. Do you think ORU will survive this controversy intact?

Oral Roberts returned to his namesake university for the first time in three years Monday and told a chapel packed with ORU employees and students fresh off fall break that no one would take away ORU.

Students had heard rumors that Roberts had returned to campus, but when he slipped into the chapel as George Pearsons, ORU board of regents chairman, was speaking, students nearby recognized him and let out a roar of a cheer that became the first of many standing ovations.

Roberts told the crowd that every allegation raised by a lawsuit against ORU and his son, university President Richard Roberts, was false. He said he was proud of ORU and its accomplishments “for the word of God,” and he said “the devil has come in to steal it away.”

“The devil is not going to steal ORU,” he said.

Oral Roberts said the university was born out of a healing ministry, and so ORU would turn to mediation this week to resolve the lawsuit.

“This will be over and behind us, and my son will be back and be president of Oral Roberts University,” he said.

On Oct. 2, three former ORU professors — John Swails, Tim Brooker and Paulita Brooker — filed the lawsuit, claiming they had been wrongfully fired or wrongfully forced to resign. Their lawsuit alleges Richard Roberts illegally involved ORU in a political campaign, and a report attached to the legal petition contains allegations that Richard Roberts’ family misspent ORU and Oral Roberts Ministries money —and more.

The former professors allege that turning over the report to the board of regents lost them their jobs.

Last week, Richard Roberts took a leave of absence while the allegations are worked through. In the meantime, Oral Roberts and Billy Joe Daugherty, ORU alumnus and co-pastor of Victory Christian Center, are leading the university as co-interim presidents.

Oral Roberts said he had moved back to Tulsa from California.

Pearsons said in a written statement from ORU that whether Richard Roberts will return as president is undetermined.

The board and an outside legal firm are investigating the lawsuit’s allegations and auditing the university.

On Monday, Gary Richardson, attorney for the former professors, said he and his clients asked to work through the issues with ORU before filing the lawsuit but did not get a response from the university.

Now, they do not want to resolve the situation with mediation — rather than in court — unless ORU officials “quit adamantly telling the public that they’ve done nothing wrong and become somewhat humbled by being caught and willing to acknowledge the imperfections of how they’ve operated.”

“We would prefer to move forward and develop the information and develop the case,” Richardson said.

Swails, former head of ORU’s department of history, humanities and government, countered the Robertses’ claims that they have done nothing wrong.

Although he said he had hoped the report he turned over to the regents was not true, he said Monday, “I think we are going to find there is a great deal of fact in these allegations.”

He also said, “I believe and I feel sure that we’re going to be able to prove I was fired for handing that (report) over” as a whistle blower, trying to notify the regents about allegations they thought students were going to make public.

The professors initially turned over the report to administrators because “the allegations in it, if they were true, could have materially damaged the university and the board of regents,” he said.

Shortly after the professors gave the report to regents, they lost their jobs, their lawsuit states. Swails was escorted out of his classroom and taken to his office, where ORU’s top academic administrator fired him and had him escorted off campus, Swails said. Several days later, an administrator called Swails, saying Richard Roberts wanted to talk with him about the report, but Swails said his attorney also would have to be there. The meeting never happened.

Now, Swails thinks ORU wants to “sweep things under the rug” through mediation.

At the ORU chapel service, Oral Roberts, 89, addressing students from a chair on stage, said: “I love you. I believe in you. I trust you. God brought you here, and you’re special to the Roberts family.”

After the nearly two-hour chapel service, students gushed about seeing the university’s founder. Junior Shanae Ryans said it was a privilege to see him, and she thought the ORU community needed to hear the message that “God is in control.”

Freshman Patrick McGillicuddy said before the service that he expected the rest of this semester to be “kind of rough,” as the lawsuit’s allegations continue to be “the hot topic of discussion.”

April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com