Oral Roberts University Turns a New Leaf

Big changes have been happening recently at Oral Roberts University. Richard Roberts is gone for good, ORU will soon be out of debt thanks to a $70 million pledge, and the Board of Regents is listening to alumni. Yes, things are changing for good at Oral Roberts University.

Many strongly conservative and religious organizations are resistant to change and Oral Roberts University has been no exception. As a matter of fact, male students are still not allowed to have beards under the current dress code. So when a scandal erupted at Oral Roberts University on October 2^nd this year, no one was surprised that Richard Roberts denied everything and planned on continuing business as usual. No one could've foreseen where Oral Roberts University would be now, less than two months later.

After several professors were fired, allegedly for presenting a document containing a list of wrongdoings by former Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts and his family to the school's Board of Regents, the former professors filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination. Richard Roberts immediately made several statements including a denial of all wrongdoing and a note, claimed to be written by God through Roberts's hand, that said the professors were just trying to use blackmail and extortion against him.

A week after the lawsuit was first made public, Richard Roberts and his wife Lindsay appeared on Larry King Live, continuing to deny all wrongdoing, and Richard Roberts stated that he would not step down because he had done nothing wrong. Just over a week after that, Richard Roberts announced that he was taking a temporary leave of absence, his father, Oral Roberts, flew back into town and declared that his son, Richard Roberts, would soon be back in his position as President of Oral Roberts University. Other than some revisions to the professors' lawsuit, including some allegations of possible sexual misconduct by Lindsay Roberts, not much else happened for about a month.