In the recent weeks, Oral Roberts University has become embroiled in a scandal, documented in various media (Larry King, CNN, MSNBC, and others). I have written a couple of small posts about this. As I live near the campus and have known various alumni, employees, and others associated with the university for some 30 years, perhaps I can give some background information on this instituion to put the situation in some context.
First, disclosures and disclaimers. I am not associated with Oral Roberts University (ORU) in any way, shape or form. I have no particular ax to grind for or against the school. Neither I nor anyone in my immediate family is an alum, employee, or has any other connection. I do live in the same city (Tulsa) as the school, and over the years have known employees, students, alums, associates and so forth of the School. I have friends (or their children) who currently attend ORU. And as a reasonably large educational instituion in a medium sized city, it gets its normal share of local media attention.
The campus is upscale. The architecture is striking. Described variously as Church of Disneyland, Jetsonville, or most unkindly by a friend of mine "Six Flags over Jesus", you may love it or hate it, but you cannot dismiss it. The more than 5,000 students have a reputation for conservatism, not just in religion, but in politics. You can look at the ORU homepage to see the code of conduct for students, and it is indeed conservative, some would say represive.
Perhaps surprisingly, the school has no connection to any particlur religious denomination. The elder Reverand Roberts founded the school in 1965, but he soon became associated with the Methodist Church. Most observers would categorize this school as a Christian fundalmentalist/Pentacostal type university.
The current fray became public on October 2, when three former professors from ORU filed a lawsuit in district court alleging improper influence in a local political campaign, financial improprieties by the school, and in an amended later filing, allegations of possible sexual improprieties and misconduct.
It seems that the plantiffs have launched a two pronged attack: one serious for the school, one serious for the Roberts' television ministry. The allegations of political campaigning may cause trouble for the school. Any 501(c)(3) institution which participates in political activity in any way may forfeit their tax exempt status. As a practicing CPA, this is a familiar area to me. In my experience, the IRS would not yank tax exempt status for a minor or incidental or one time violation, but might not have a choice but to yank tax exempt status if there were multiple violations; they were pervasive; and they were continuing. The response so far from the school and from the Roberts' personally seems that they are fearful of such a result.
The second attack seems aimed at drying up the revenue sources from the Roberts' television ministry. Hints or allegations of sexual improprieties are a good way to do this.
If the school should lose tax exempt status, and the revenue dries up from the television ministry, well, you can do the math.
One final observation. I suspect that all this may be directed at driving the younger Mr. Roberts from the school. Whether this is coming from someone like John Hagee, who sits on the Board of Regents, for his own nefarious purposes, or by the other stakeholders in the school is as yet unclear.
Stay tuned.ORU homepage