This story is making the rounds…
Mart Green calls the severance package “fair and reasonable.”
Keep visiting SaveORU.com for more news and analysis.
The official job requirements are posted online at here. The search is being handled by an executive search company.
Mark Lewandowski will be leaving his position as ORU’s provost on June 24th, but will continue working as a professor. At the height of the scandal involving Richard and Lindsay Roberts, he had remarked that the former President Roberts’ management had created a “culture of fear” on campus.
Read the Article from the Tulsa World
“You could buy everyone a plasma-screen TV for their rooms, it doesn’t matter, you have to treat everyone like adults.” – Andrew Saah, Sophmore, ORU (Accepted to University of Maryland as a transfer student)
Ouch – one could have seen this coming. It’s something that should have happened long ago, after years of struggling with a crushing debt and a corporate culture of fear, Oral Roberts University has another major hurdle to overcome. Since its beginnings, ORU has taken on the role of a “surrogate parent/guardian” for its students. Whether you were 18 or 40 –if you lived in the dorms –you had a curfew and an RA telling you to clean your room. Adding insult to injury, it cost you a pretty penny too, and up until 2001, you had to wear business attire to attend classes.
With tuition costs soaring and more students footing the bill for their own education, they want to be in control of their college experience. ORU has improved over the years with the adoption of more customer-service oriented approaches, but the recent scandal has made many of the most forgiving students and parents take a step back and ask “what am I really getting for my money?”
Many of the former regents presided over “feeder” churches (ones that actively recruited its high-school graduates to attend ORU.) This could partially explain the drop in enrollment. In addition, the current economic pullback is probably driving many students to stay closer to home or attend community college for the first two years. (Many of ORU’s students come from out of state.)
ORU has a lot of ground to cover and must reinvent itself to survive. Vanguard University of Southern California (affiliated with the Assemblies of God) successfully reinvented itself back in 1999. Almost a decade later Vanguard is thriving. ORU can accomplish the same.
We’re not saying that ORU isn’t a worthwhile education. In fact, it’s fantastic in many ways. With no fraternities, students actually attend class, are just as competitive (mentally, physically and academically) with students from other colleges and are adequately prepared for the workplace.
Look for our new article on “What ORU Must Do” in the near future.
ORU is in the middle of a new fundraising campaign entitled “Renewing the Vision”, it includes a $25 million matching campaign for donors, alumni and friends.
Save ORU would like to encourage everyone to be a part of bringing the university out of debt and into the 21st century.
For more information, click here.
In the midst of homecoming festivities this weekend on campus. New allegations have surfaced that 1 billion (with a capital ‘B’) were funneled through the university inappropriately. The claims come from a former senior accountant who is suing over the loss of his job at the university.
Our Thoughts:
We have no idea where that kind of money would have come from, even in a former “oil-rich” town such as Tulsa. We have serious doubts, but anything is possible – including a larger scheme involving other outside organizations. Regardless of what may or may not have happened in the past, things have now changed for the better.
We have one thing to say to the new board of trustees. Please, no golden parachute for Richard.
Read the full story from the AP here.
ORU received the remaining $62 million of Mart Green’s $70 million dollar donation to the university.
Sources have informed us that preparations may now be in order to move all Oral Roberts Ministries operations off campus. This measure would be a major step toward the formal separation of Oral Roberts University from Oral Roberts Ministries required by the IRS.
Interestingly enough, this may also include the Abundant Life Prayer Group currently housed in the Prayer Tower. Designed by Frank Wallace, the tower was originally built as the main architectural centerpiece of the campus in addition to serving as a visitor’s center and base for the phone operations of Oral Roberts Ministries.
Sources also believe that Richard and Lindsay Roberts will most likely relocate outside the Tulsa area – possibly to Southern California.
Stay tuned to SaveORU.com for more news and analysis.
ORU is now taking steps toward becoming a financially accredited religious organization through the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).
Save ORU previously stated that this was a necessity in order to restore ORU’s public image with the community, alumni and donors. Link to story.
