Oral Roberts back at ORU
BY APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
10/23/07 at 9:35 AM
For more: Read the latest stories, view the lawsuit and other documents and watch slide shows and video.
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
Associated Images:
ON CAMPUS
Oral Roberts:
The university’s
founder says “The
devil is not going
to steal ORU.”
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