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Reviewing Oral Roberts
At the heart of every scandal lies opportunity. The University of Colorado recognized this when the Ward Churchill affair broke--it is now instituting major policy reform regarding its tenure system. Likewise, when the Washington Post exposed American University president Ben Ladner's lavish and inappropriate spending habits, the board fired Ladner and initiated comprehensive governance review. In both cases, a university's governing board turned devastating findings about internal corruption into the occasion for systematic internal review, greater accountability, and positive change.
Now Oral Roberts University faces similar scandal--and has a similar opportunity. In the short space of two months, much has happened at the Tulsa-based school: Lawsuits have been filed against the university by faculty, staff, and students alleging financial malfeasance and ethical misconduct on the part of President Richard Roberts; faculty have overwhelmingly passed a "no confidence" vote in Roberts; and Roberts has resigned.
The campus is reeling, and students are reacting strongly to the news that their leaders have not necessarily held themselves to the moral and behavioral standards to which they hold students. Oral Roberts students sign contracts committing to observe a dress code, a curfew, and strict rules about such things as swearing, drinking, and lying. Allegations that Richard Roberts used university resources to--among other things--finance cars, horses, vacations, and a swanky Beverly Hills home aren't sitting well with them.
But opportunities for repair and reform are already emerging. In response to the accusations, the board promptly commissioned an independent audit of ORU's finances so that it could assess the facts. Last week, the board met to hear the results of the audit; it also used the meeting to begin discussions of what to do about the University's $52 million debt (largely incurred when a hospital project failed during the 1980s), and about a problematic leadership structure in which the University's finances and overseers are indistinct from those of the Oral Roberts ministry, a situation that has compromised accountability and endlessly confused the issue of spending. On the strength of that meeting, the board has announced its intention to separate ORU from Oral Roberts Ministries, and to commence a major overhaul of the University's finances and governance structure.
Central to these initiatives is a governance-minded benefactor named Mart Green. Green--who is not himself an ORU alum--has donated $8 million to ORU to help it through the immediate crisis, and has offered $62 million more on condition that the University make necessary changes to its fiduciary and fiscal arrangements.
Good governance is always an ongoing process, and the most successful institutions are capable of responding constructively to the need for change. ORU has a history of failing to respond to that need--former trustee Harry McNevin resigned in 1987 because he could not abide the board's refusal to address misspending, and an independent investigation of ORU during the 1990s revealed spending patterns very like those currently at issue.
But now--at what might be its moment of greatest extremity--the University has a chance to make good on its obligations to its mission and its students. Here's to a substantive, responsible program of governance reform at Oral Roberts--one that eliminates conflicts of interest, establishes strong imperatives for transparency, and implements clear paths for fiduciary and fiscal accountability. The students deserve no less.
Posted by acta online on December 04, 2007 at December 4, 2007 03:02 PM
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