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Oral Roberts President Takes Leave Of School

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By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, The Associated Press

Published: October 18, 2007

TULSA, Okla. - Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts asked for and was granted a leave of absence Wednesday amid accusations of lavish spending at donors' expense and illegal involvement in a political campaign.

The 58-year-old son of the evangelist who founded the school said he would continue in his role as chairman and chief executive of Oral Roberts Ministries. He also decried what he said were untrue allegations.

'I don't know how long this leave of absence will last, but I fully trust the members of the Board of Regents,' Roberts said in a news release issued by the university.

'I pray and believe that in God's timing, and when the Board feels that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as president,' the release stated.

The board said that Billy Joe Daugherty, the senior pastor of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, will temporarily assume the president's duties with help from Oral Roberts, 89, who is chancellor of the 5,700-student university but has left the day-to-day operations to his son.

An Oct. 2 lawsuit filed by three former ORU professors says they were wrongfully dismissed. It also accuses Roberts of misspending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodels and a senior trip to the Bahamas for one daughter on the ministry's dime.

And it accuses Roberts of illegal involvement in a local political campaign, which would jeopardize the university's nonprofit status.

The professors contend that they were forced out after turning over this information to the ORU Board of Regents.

George Pearsons, the board's chairman, said he will meet Friday with the outside firm charged with investigating the allegations.

'Nothing is being swept under the rug; nothing is being hidden,' Pearsons said late Wednesday.

The professors' lawsuit was amended last week to include new allegations that documents were shredded and destroyed days after the initial lawsuit was filed, and hours after the university and Richard Roberts fired the school's comptroller.

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