Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hot ORU Rumor

I have it from a pretty good source that is NOT Rick Westcott's e-mail that a second law suit will be filed against Oral Roberts University...this time by a student from the government department. I am told that the suit alleges that by cleaning house of much of the government department, the university damaged the student's degree. I'm trying to get additional confirmation. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This ORU situation is getting out of hand. It is in the interest of ORU students, faculty, and staff, for the truth to be revealed. It is not in their interest, nor the interest of the Tulsa community in general for ORU to be torn down. It seems that is exactly what Swails, the Brookers, Richardson, and other would like to see happen. Think of all of the Tulsans who are employed or help by ORU. Hopefully this matter will be resolved soon. For all of our sakes. I approve this message!

Anonymous said...

There have been many over the years that have seen people suffer retribution at ORU for trying to deal with wrongdoing. When I attended ORU 25-30 years ago a friend of mine at the time was getting ready to graduate. He pointed out something wrong and tried to speak with someone about it. When he did that his senior paper was 'lost'. This was in 1980 or 1981 before PCs were invented. He would have had no time to recreate the paper before graduation. He left ORU in total disgust. I checked the ORU alumni page this week and they do not have a graduation date for him. I plan to contact a friend of mine that dated him to see if she has any information about him. We have been trying to find him since he left school. The last thing he probably wanted to do was to have any contact with anyone connected to ORU. I can't blame him but we all still miss him.

No one knows where the wrong is in this situation. Everyone on both sides of this needs to really do some soul searching. There have been a whole lot of paranoia in the leadership at ORU. It was there when Oral was over the school and appears to have continued with Richard. Richard said on Larry King I believe that he had his sister-in-law to compile a list of rumors that were being said about him, his family and ORU. Just that fact alone would make me think that he would do anything to keep stuff quiet. Paranoid people trust no one. They usually assume that others are coming after them, even with simple statements. You can forget having a sincere disgreement with such a person. The more aggressive ones will more than likely retailate if they are in a place of power and feel threatened.

I'm not taking sides on this issue. Pres. Roberts can be completely innocent or he could be hiding something. I watched the chapel service on 10/10 and cried for hours. I'm glad that Pastor BIlly Joe is the interim president of ORU. I feel like this will help settle down things for the Roberts family and for those of us connected to ORU. The family needs time to regroup and seek God like Richard said that he would do. I feel if any of the people on the Regent Board can be trusted it is Pastor Daugherty. It is not God's plan for ORU to go down. I truly believe that it will come back strong. However if there is wrongdoing it needs to be cleaned up. I assume the truth will come out in the lawsuit.

Those professors, even if they are telling the truth, can pretty much forget getting jobs elsewhere. No employer will probably hire them because they do not want to have anyone that will sue their employers.

Many people are praying for all sides. I had shed many tears over this. I want to see ORU continue and thrive.

Anonymous said...

There have been paranoia in the ORU leadership since I attended there 25-30 years ago. This fact will cause people to retailate. A friend of mine in 1980 or 1981 was getting ready to graduate. He had turned in his senior paper. Sometime after that he tried to speak with someone about something that he questioned. Right now I do not remember the details about what the issue was. I do remember that when he did that his senior paper was 'lost'. There was no way for him to recreate it before time for graduation. He left the school in disgust. We have been trying to find out information on him. At this point no one has found him. Probably the last group of people he wants to have anything to do with is anyone connected to ORU. There have been stories like this over the years where people lost their jobs or had some other type of retailation. I know of another ORU student that had something happen to him. He too left in disgust and walked away from the Lord for a time. I have not had contact with him in a long time so I do not know if he has come back to the Lord or not. I do not believe that everyone that mentions something that happened there is someone that is slimy and wants the school closed. A Christian university implies that things are done above reproach. Pres. Roberts cannot oversee every single detail about every person that works there. However when something comes up it is reasonable to expect that things will be resolved according to the standards in the Bible. When that is not done it causes problems.

No one knows what caused these three professors to be fired. However it is pretty evident that the paranoia that I saw when I attended there is still there today. Pres. Roberts said I believe on Larry King that his sister-in-love was asked to be the eyes and ears of ORU in the community and to compile a list of rumors. That fact alone would make me think that they would do anything to get back at someone that they felt was a threat to them. People like that in positions of power are frightening. How sad to be bound up by fear like that. I'm not convinced that all the allegations are true. However that is not the subject of the lawsuit. The issue is wrongful termination when trying to bring this up to the Regent Board.

I'm very grieved about all of this. My hope is that all wrongdoing whever it may be is dealt with. SOMETHING happened at the school. Again if Pres. Roberts is telling the truth he is a very paranoid man that needs to trust the Lord more in taking care of him. I guarantee you that he will NEVER compile a list of rumors about him or his family again.

The professors will be lucky to find work anywhere else because of filing the lawsuit. No employer will stay away from them like the plague. We will see if they are doing this because of money or if they are telling the truth since Pres. Roberts has not settled the lawsuit.

I have cried many tears over this. I'm grateful that Billy Joe has become the acting president of ORU. If anyone on the Board of Regents can be trusted it is that man. The chapel service that was done when he was asked to come back on the Regent Board on 10/10 was one on repentance. I cried for a couple of hours watching it online. I feel confident that the truth will come out, especially since the Regents Board was added to the lawsuit.

I sincerely pray to God that this issue will be resolved quickly.

Pamela said...

The hot rumor may be true. They named the student in a Newsweek article. There is also a gal that used to be a nanny for RR and Lindsay that is mentioned here. She has posted comments responding to Tulsa World articles. She has that she and another person have been interviewed for the Daily Oklahoman. She was told that article should appear in the Sunday edition. They have a RSS feed just for ORU related articles that I have subscribed to.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/57298