The additional gift from the Green family will come with major changes in ORU administration.

Oral Roberts University’s board of regents voted unanimously Monday to accept an additional $62 million from the Green family, which founded the Hobby Lobby and Mardel Christian and educational supply stores.

An ORU spokesman said in late October that ORU was $52.5 million in debt, and the school accepted an unconditional $8 million from the Greens in late November.

The second pool of money from the family comes with major changes to ORU’s governing board and to the way the university is run.

“We felt like the ideas that we brought were more valuable than $62 million,” Mart Green, spokesman for the family, said at a press conference at ORU on Monday.

ORU began as a “founder’s school” but will adopt “21st century governance,” in which employees will have a say in decisions, Green said.

Providing input will get employees involved at ORU, and that will empower them, Green said. “That is my gift — empowering people,” he said.

The family decided to offer to help ORU after hearing about the school’s troubles after a wrongful termination lawsuit was filed by three former professors in

“We really grieved in our heart for the sake of the students,” Green told students and ORU employees on Monday before speaking at a press conference about the planned changes. The students and employees cheered and gave a standing ovation when ORU Regents Chairman George Pearsons announced that the board had accepted the Greens’ offer.

From regents to trustees ORU’s board of regents will be replaced with a board of trustees, initially made up of 13 members named by the Greens. Mart Green will be chairman and, contrary to his statement in November that two Greens would sit on the board, he will be the only one. He wanted to be involved in ORU because his family “felt like financial stewardship needed to be shored up,” he said.

ORU founder Oral Roberts, 89, will be a lifetime trustee.

Others who will be appointed trustees are Don H. Argue, chancellor of a Christian university; Fredrick A. Boswell Jr., an ORU graduate, Bible translator and executive director of the Summer Institute of Linguistics; Stanley M. Burgess, a professor at Pat Robertson’s Regent University; Hal Donaldson, editor in chief of the magazine Today’s Pentecostal Evangel; the Rev. Robert Hoskins, founder of the Christian missions organization Affect Destiny Teams; Lynette (Troyer) Lewis, a motivational speaker and ORU graduate; Ron Luce, founder of Teen Mania Ministries; Charles W. McKinney, an administrator at Florida Gulf Coast University; Russell P. Spittler, retired provost and professor of Fuller Theological Seminary; R. Lamar Vest, an executive with the American Bible Society; and William (Billy) Wilson, executive director of the International Center for Spiritual Renewal and executive producer of Voice of Salvation Ministries, according to information from Green and ORU.

ORU’s board of business regents will nominate six of its members for the board of trustees. The Green family, in consultation with Oral Roberts, will choose three of those nominees to serve as trustees, according to the Greens’ proposal, which ORU’s board of regents accepted.

Six remaining trustee positions will remain open.

The board of trustees will decide how to spend the $62 million gift, Green said.

A new board of reference will be formed and will be made up of current ORU business regents who wish to serve and others chosen by the Green family, according to the proposal and Green.

Members of this board won’t attend meetings or vote but will serve as ORU ambassadors and as ORU’s institutional memory, Green said.

Pearsons said he will not serve on the board of reference but will return to his work as pastor of Eagle Mountain International Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

ORU president Richard Roberts, the son of ORU’s founder, resigned from the presidency in November after a lawsuit and its fallout raised allegations that Roberts misspent ORU money and promoted a “culture of fear” through his leadership.

Roberts denied wrongdoing.

He remains the CEO of Oral Roberts Ministries.

On Monday, regents voted unanimously to name Richard Roberts president emeritus to honor his work during 15 years as president, Pearsons said.

Regent Billy Joe Daugherty, pastor of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, has served as ORU’s interim president.

Last week, the board of regents named Regent Glenda Payas to lead a committee to determine ORU’s presidential selection process. Now, the board of trustees will decide on the process, according to the Green family proposal.

The new board will form a search committee, create an “opportunity statement” and “presidential profile” to guide the search, and, likely, nominate a candidate to the board of trustees.

Reaction

ORU freshman Twyla Reimer considers the Greens’ donation as from God and said the assistance will benefit students, who came to ORU with trust and confidence in the school and now have a basis for renewed confidence, she said.

Junior Alisa Gerrish said she was excited to see, in the Greens’ assistance, a conclusion.

The turmoil of the lawsuit resulted in Oral Roberts’ return to the school from his home in California. Gerrish said that without the events of the past few months, that “blessing” wouldn’t have occurred.

After Pearsons and Green announced that the board had accepted the Greens’ proposal, Gerrish made her way to the front of ORU’s chapel to Richard Roberts and told him she would miss him.

Later, Richard Roberts said he and his father agree with the board’s decision and support the Greens.

ORU’s mission, vision and founding purpose of evangelism will not change, Richard Roberts said, and neither will ORU’s name.

The money from the Greens will lift ORU out of debt and send a public message that the school is not only academically but financially strong, he said.

“There’s a lot of things we’ve had on the drawing board that we’ve not been able to do because of finances,” he said.

ORU professor Evan Culp said the lack of debt will allow ORU to focus on education and missions.

More details

ORU’s regents will meet again Tuesday to work out the details of the Green family plan, officials said. Pearsons said he expects to remain chairman of the board for a couple of weeks while ORU transitions to its new governance system.

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