Thursday, October 11, 2007

Professors Sue Oral Roberts University President

It looks like when they are not trolling men's rooms and parks for tricks, the paragons of virtue of the far right are dipping into the non-profit till so that they can live lavishly. This New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/education/11roberts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)looks at the financial scandel at Oral Roberts University. This University requires a minister recommendation for prospective students (http://admissions.oru.edu/minister_recommendation.pdf) and has an Honor Code which prohibits stealing, cheating, lying, etc. ( http://www.oru.edu/university/departments/admissions/code-of-honor-pledge.pdf), not to mention nasty homosexual acts. Unfortunately, it sounds like Richard Roberts and his wife were exempted from the Honor Code requirements. Here are a few of the article highlights:


A suit filed by three former professors charges financial, political and personal irregularities by the president of Oral Roberts University, including a claim that he illegally mobilized students to campaign for a Republican mayoral candidate.

The ex-professors, citing a secret internal report by an official of the Oral Roberts Ministries, linked to the university in Tulsa, Okla., sued on Oct. 2. They also contended that the Roberts house on the campus had been remodeled 11 times in 14 years, that the university jet took family members on trips and that the family’s university-paid cellphones sent text messages to “under-age males — often between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.” The plaintiffs said “some of the more salacious entries” were omitted from the suit “to preserve, as much as possible, the remaining positive image of the university.”

Tax law strictly limits the political activities of nonprofit groups, as well as the use of a charity’s assets by insiders like the Roberts family. The university’s reported ownership of a plane might also raise questions, lawyers said. Harvard, the nation’s wealthiest nonprofit institution, does not own a plane.

Some reports indicate have that Mrs. Roberts was racking up $800 a month phone bills text messaging under age males between 1 and 3 AM. It sounds like a regular Sodom and Gomorrah!! More information can be found here: http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/oru-lawsuit/default.html A copy of the lawsuit - which needs to be read to be believed is here: http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/pdfs/Swails_vs_ORU.pdf

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