ORUTerry Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 I know this breaks the posting rules, but given its importance I am making an exception..... ORU accepts $62 million offer By Staff reports 1/14/2008 4:58 PM Oral Roberts University's board of regents has accepted an offer of $62 million from the family that founded Hobby Lobby and Mardel Christian and educational supply stores. In late November, ORU accepted an unconditional donation of $8 million from Mart Green's family. The proposal tied to the additional $62 million required shared governance, in which faculty and staff would participate in university decision-making, according to a statement from Green last month. Green, from Yukon, said in November he saw the need for changes in leadership, finances and governance at ORU -- areas where an accreditation team also cited need for improvement. Green's offer came days after Richard Roberts resigned as ORU president, and Green said then, "That was the leadership issue that has been taken care of." A lawsuit filed by three professors in October accused Roberts of spending university money for personal uses, but Roberts said he paid for personal expenses and he denied wrongdoing. Green said in November that changes to the board of regents might be needed and that if ORU accepted his family's offer, two Green family members would sit on ORU's board. In the past month, Green planned to review ORU's finances and oversight. ORU is $52.5 million in debt, a university spokesman said in late October. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcboy2000 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Whew! That is news worth sharing! Thanks, Terry! It's another great day for the future of the university! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Whew! That is news worth sharing! Thanks, Terry! It's another great day for the future of the university! Perhaps more significant than the dollar amount is the apparent willingness of the Board of Regents to submit to outside scrutiny and compliance. But the money doesn't suck, either... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTex Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 There is a press release at www.oru.edu with more detail, and a PDF link to the full Green proposal: ORU Board Accepts Green Family Proposal TULSA, Okla. -- The Oral Roberts University Board of Regents met on Monday, January 14 with representatives of the Green family to review their proposal and provide an opportunity for the regents to address questions. “We are pleased to announce the board has unanimously accepted the Green family proposal in principle.” said George Pearsons, Chairman of the Board of Regents. “The final terms of the proposal are being worked out now,” said Pearsons. Highlights of the accepted proposal include: Shared governance under a new set of bylaws which will now govern the university and keep the mission and vision intact. Replacement of the Board of Regents, Business and Spiritual, with a single Board of Trustees, who will govern the university in trust on behalf of its students, faculty, alumni and other stakeholders. The Green family has one vote on this new board and retains no additional control over university matters. An announcement that former regents will transition to a non-voting, newly formed Board of Reference. The Board of Trustees, made up of nine to twenty-two members, will have ultimate authority over all university matters and will initially be comprised of 13 new Trustees. The current Board of Regents will recommend six nominees to the new board for consideration of which three will be confirmed by the Green family. Six additional seats will remain open for future Board of Trustee selection. Oral Roberts will continue as Chancellor of ORU and will be named a Trustee for the remainder of his life. Mart Green will be named as Chairman and will be the sole member of the Green family to serve on the Board of Trustees. Use of the $62 million donation will be determined by the Board of Trustees. “We stand together today knowing the future of ORU is strong. Our proposal focuses on a new shared governance model that will carry forward this university’s mission and founding vision for generations to come,” said Mart Green, representative of the Green family. “We are humbled and thankful for the board’s trust in this plan and their faith in us,” concluded Green. Click here to download Green family proposal (http://webapps.oru.edu/alumniweb/news/proposaltoboard.pdf) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 Highlights of the accepted proposal include: Replacement of the Board of Regents, Business and Spiritual, with a single Board of Trustees, who will govern the university in trust on behalf of its students, faculty, alumni and other stakeholders. The Green family has one vote on this new board and retains no additional control over university matters. An announcement that former regents will transition to a non-voting, newly formed Board of Reference. The Board of Trustees, made up of nine to twenty-two members, will have ultimate authority over all university matters and will initially be comprised of 13 new Trustees. The current Board of Regents will recommend six nominees to the new board for consideration of which three will be confirmed by the Green family. Six additional seats will remain open for future Board of Trustee selection. (http://webapps.oru.edu/alumniweb/news/proposaltoboard.pdf) This is bigger than most of us realize..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrueBlue82 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 This is bigger than most of us realize..... Here's what it means to me, Terry. Our son has narrowed his collegiate choices to five, including ORU. If this decision had gone the other way, the list would now be down to four. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Here's what it means to me, Terry. Our son has narrowed his collegiate choices to five, including ORU. If this decision had gone the other way, the list would now be down to four. I was curious where most alumni fell on this issue - I'm not near as close to the fray as some of you on this deal, but it sure appears to be great news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 The news is almost unbelievable given the scope of changes that are happening. The existing Board of Regents (Business and Spiritual) have basically agreed to step aside for a new slate of Trustees. Mart Green will serve as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Three of the existing Regents may be placed on the Board of Trustees. A new interim President is to be named by the Green family and will serve until the Search Committee selects the new, permanent President. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Minyard Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 The news is almost unbelievable given the scope of changes that are happening. The existing Board of Regents (Business and Spiritual) have basically agreed to step aside for a new slate of Trustees. Mart Green will serve as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Three of the existing Regents may be placed on the Board of Trustees. A new interim President is to be named by the Green family and will serve until the Search Committee selects the new, permanent President. Pretty impressive to say the least Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Minyard Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Please vote at http://www.kjrh.com/ They are running a poll right now for the newscast. They seem to take something very positive and twist it to help generate ratings. Amazing.... or maybe there is another word for it. The results are very positive so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadAdder Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Wow, this is definitely good news for the University. My only hesitation here is the amount of power that Mart Green looks to assume as Chairman of the new Board of Trustees (even if he is the only member of his family to sit on the Board). I imagine that his vote will work like the Vice President in the Senate - when there's a tie, his vote is the tiebreaker. Is he essentially spending $70 million to buy himself the 2nd most powerful position (2nd only to the President) of the University? I'm not saying any of this is bad, quite the contrary, I think the university is moving in the right direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashVID Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Mart could care less about power, he is a figure head anyway, the money is from David. This is about accountability to let God work without the hand of man interfering. Interesting dynamic, by eliminating those who preach prosperity and live in decadence, the University will once again prosper. ash =o) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Titan Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Wow, this is definitely good news for the University. My only hesitation here is the amount of power that Mart Green looks to assume as Chairman of the new Board of Trustees (even if he is the only member of his family to sit on the Board). I imagine that his vote will work like the Vice President in the Senate - when there's a tie, his vote is the tiebreaker. Is he essentially spending $70 million to buy himself the 2nd most powerful position (2nd only to the President) of the University? I'm not saying any of this is bad, quite the contrary, I think the university is moving in the right direction. At least he appears intent on operating in broad daylight, while requesting (requiring?) that everyone else involved do likewise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcboy2000 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Google is awesome! Here is what I've found on some of the lesser known names on the proposed newly organized board of trustees. Dr. Stanly Burgess- Distinguished professor of Christian History at Regent University in the School of Divinity Hal Donaldson- Founder and President of the Convoy of Hope. Also the editor of the Pentecostal Evangel, the official voice of the Assemblies of God and largest Pentecostal magazine in the world. Rob Hoskins- President of The Book of Hope. An international ministry focused on child missions and child evangelism (no pic) Dr Russel Spittler- Senior Professor of New Testament and Provost Emeritus at Fuller Theological Seminary. Dr. R Lamar Vest- Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Bible Society and Executive Vice President of Global Scripture Ministries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cletus Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I know some of these names may be unknown to folks, but I wonder what people like Bob Stamps, Jimmy Buskirk Paul Brynetson Howard Ervin Paul Chappell Bob Tuttle and others think about all these things that have happened at ORU. I know they are still around and active in ministry. They were the spiritual leaders and giants when I was a student at ORU. It's a new generation. At least the sports teams have excelled through all of these changes. You have to give them credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I'm impressed with the quality of those people that VCB posted. There was a very enlightening interview of Mart Green on KRMG this morning. One of the questions asked was, with the colorful history that ORU has, what is being done to maintain the legacy of ORU while bringing in so many new people to govern it. Mart's response was very reassuring. He pointed out that Oral Roberts will have a lifetime position on the board, that three people currently chosen and approved are ORU grads, that three people from the old Board of Regents will be chosen by the BOR to be added to the Board of Trustees, bringing the total number of people on the Board of Trustees up to sixteen. Then, over the next year they intend to expand the board of trustees to twenty two, and he said he expected those six people to more than likely be people with close ties to the University. It was a very good answer. Hopefully they will post the interview on the KRMG web site. I've heard Mart Green interviewed three times, I believe, and every time I've been left totally impressed and totally reassured of his positive intentions. IN NO WAY does there appear to be any sort of a power grab or anything other than providing for the health and longevity of ORU. One of the first orders of business Mart Green said the Board of Trustees will deal with is the selection of a new University President. I guess this means that, after a fair amount of public fanfare, my good friend Glenda Payas is out of her presidential selection committee job! I rarely catch the evening news, but did last night, and noticed that Richard Roberts was at the press conference, spoke briefly, and was positive about the changes taking place. He's been given the title of president emeritus in honor of his years of service to ORU, which I think is a classy move. I also thought it took a lot of humility for RR to come and give his approval of the changes. He earned a lot of respect from me for that. The Tulsa World lists the other Trustees: "Others who will be appointed trustees are Don H. Argue, chancellor of a Christian university; Fredrick A. Boswell Jr., an ORU graduate, Bible translator and executive director of the Summer Institute of Linguistics; Stanley M. Burgess, a professor at Pat Robertson’s Regent University; Hal Donaldson, editor in chief of the magazine Today’s Pentecostal Evangel; the Rev. Robert Hoskins, founder of the Christian missions organization Affect Destiny Teams; Lynette (Troyer) Lewis, a motivational speaker and ORU graduate; Ron Luce, founder of Teen Mania Ministries; Charles W. McKinney, an administrator at Florida Gulf Coast University; Russell P. Spittler, retired provost and professor of Fuller Theological Seminary; R. Lamar Vest, an executive with the American Bible Society; and William (Billy) Wilson, executive director of the International Center for Spiritual Renewal and executive producer of Voice of Salvation Ministries, according to information from Green and ORU." That's a nice mix of people with theological and educational credentials. I'd have to say, without any other knowledge, I'm really happy about the selection of Board members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmh8286 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 The KRMG interview with Mart Green can be found here. There's also an interview with George Pearson posted, but I haven't been able to get it to work. The pop-up blockers on my computer make it a little challenging to get to the audio player on both interviews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORUTerry Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 The changes to the structure and organization of ORU are incredible.... even after one day. The current Board of Regents are to be commended for doing the right thing and effectively resigning for the good of ORU. I have spoken to several people who know Mart Green and they say he is humble and has no desire to direct ORU - or even stay around for very long. (He certainly came across that way in a meeting I attended last month.) They expect him to make sure the ship is going in the right direction and then disengage. Anyone notice that Lynette (Troyer) Lewis is now a Trustee? She attended ORU with me and was Alumni Director before leaving to take a position with Deloitte in NYC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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