Rutland's Post Board Meeting Press Conference

[vcboy2000]

I hadn't seen this posted anywhere.

The ORU Oracle had a nice article about President Rutland instituting a new policy to have a press conference following every board of trustees meeting to announce the what was discussed and any many changes. The article quoted a professor saying this press conference and policy of press conferences, "holds true to what he (Dr. Rutland) promised us when he came. We'd heard a lot about transparency, but we didn't have a lot of experience with it. I think it's an extremely good sign".

Announcements that were made:

Rutland celebrated the trustees by saying they are "engaged without being oppressive".

The University's financial audit is clean, and "we are positioned this year to break through...to substantial black ink".

The freshman retention rate increased by 4.8% from the previous year and is above the national average (which says a lot for a school with the price tag of ORU).

A 7-year strategic plan was proposed to the board and will be formally reviewed at the January meeting.

The board of trustees unanimously agreed to change the "nomenclature of the university's academic departments". Instead of calling the academic departments "Schools" they will now be called "Colleges" ie the College of Art & Sciences. President Rutland said the change also allows the graduate programs to receive specific names since the term "school" is generally used to refer to graduate programs.

Plans for a new engineering building have been approved. The building will be a lab extension onto the LRC and will cost $3 million. Fundraising is in the quiet phase right now.

Other points of interest throughout the newspaper included an article about a petition that ORU Center Damen Bell-Holter is helping to circulate to extend open dorm hours for dormitory residents. According to Damen, the petition needs at least 500 signatures to be able to become a formal proposal. He already has 400, but is shooting for 1,000. Some interesting quotes from Damen:

"They treat us like little kids".

"[The petition] is a good way to get everyone involved, feel respsonsible, and get their voices out there."

On how he is getting the signatures:

"I told the truth. When President Rutland was president of Southeastern University, they had open dorms more often and it wasn't only two hours. SEU had it twice a week, 6-9pm".

"It would be nice if open dorms could last another hour or two because right now when you start hanging out or seeing difference people, it's over."

"The students will feel like they are trusted and responsible".

Another article talked about how Dr. Rutland is now teaching Charismatic Life (formally Holy Spirit in the Now) and the changes that have taken place in the class since Oral's days teaching the class.

[theeagleman5]

Good for DBH....if a kid is old enough to go to war at 18, I think he/she can certainly be trusted with some increased open dorm hours....frankly, what we had in the 70's was ridiculous....nobody of the opposite sex was allowed in except for 2 hr open houses that we had maybe once a month...yeah, it's time to allow these young people some additional freedom....

[Cletus]

Eagleman...remember when OR used to say in the 70's "If the girls are in the boys will be in, too!" (Regarding curfew--women had to be in by a certain time but the men didn't)

In our liberal world today we wonder how anyone got away with saying something like that publically.

Shows how much our society has changed and ORU--for the good or bad (depends on who you talk to)

[theeagleman5]

LOL, Cletus...I sure remember that....and the girls curfew sure didn't keep us in....not by a longshot...we used to come in often well past 1am but you had to get in by like 2:30am before they locked the doors....it wasn't very fashionable back then because they made you sign in if you arrived back at the men's dorm after 2:30am....appear on that list too often and you knew you were getting a call from the Dean....

[Cletus]

Another line OR used to say was, "it's a privilege not a right to be here." (meaning ORU)

"if you don't like it here , don't come.

You knew before you came how it would be."

I wonder if they say those sorts of things anymore?

Those comments usually stopped you dead in your tracks if you were complaining about something.

It's a different world!

[vcboy2000]

Cletus,

Have you heard reports that ORU is changing for the bad?

[theeagleman5]

Oral used to really talk tough back in the "old days"....that certainly wouldn't go over with today's younger generation...it just would never work and alienate them....most of us feared OR....I remember the famous "I'll Take You To the Mat" speech after OR found about some on campus hi-jinks that TheEagleman may or may not have been a part of....I'll never say......

[Cletus]

I remember in the fall of 1981 when Dr. Frederick KC Price came to campus and spoke in chapel. Some of Price's comments didn't come off the way he would have liked. When a theology professor yelled out in chapel during Price's sermon, OR got up after Fred's spoke and asked the chapel audience,

"Who yelled out like that?"

No one answered.

Then OR said,

"If you don't have the guts to say who you are then you can just check out of here!" The professor sheepishly stood up and said he did it and then apologized.

Then OR went on for 20-30 minutes on that we need respect in chapel. I don't think I've ever seen anyone have a crowd in the palm of his hands like OR. People cheered, clapped and gave standing ovations. OR was unique. That kind of persona can not be recreated. It was like Papa Bear was speaking.

I have a copy of the tape from that chapel! They didn't cut out that part!

[theeagleman5]

I agree that TheEagleman in his 56 yrs on earth has never heard anyone speak in person like OR...he could really capture the crowd like no one else...except maybe Billy Graham....heard Al Gore once but no comparison.... .......TheEagleman recalls a chapel back in the mid-70s when Oral invited his friend Jerry Lewis to speak....the comedian was on campus to help produce and direct one of OR's prime time specials....I recall Lewis making some ridiculous comments regarding all his good and charitable deeds with the MDA Association and how because of that he knew he had favor with God and would someday be welcomed into heaven because of that....i was sitting in the back of the then new chapel building with some wingmates waiting for Oral or someone in the crowd to jump up and contest his unbiblical statements....but no one did....now, looking back....I wish I had....yeah, I might have been escorted out but I know that I would have done the right thing....I guess OR was just trying to be hospitable....but no one should be taking the pulpit at ORU and speaking that kind of nonsense.....I still think of that moment everytime i see Jerry Lewis on his telethon....and how he thinks that his good works are going to earn him a spot in eternity....maybe if someone has pointed out his erroneous thinking that day, Jerry might have had something to ponder.....

[TrueBlue82]

....I guess OR was just trying to be hospitable....

I don't know this for a fact, Eagleman, but I would be very surprised if OR didn't have that conversation privately with Jerry Lewis sometime after the chapel. He was good enough with people that he would know that confronting his statements in a public setting would be inhospitable, and that it would cause his guest to be offended to the point where OR could never speak into his life. But I can definitely see OR walking with Jerry later in the day, patting him on the back, and saying... "Jerry, my dear friend, let me tell you a story about God's grace..."

[vcboy2000]

I don't know this for a fact, Eagleman, but I would be very surprised if OR didn't have that conversation privately with Jerry Lewis sometime after the chapel. He was good enough with people that he would know that confronting his statements in a public setting would be inhospitable, and that it would cause his guest to be offended to the point where OR could never speak into his life. But I can definitely see OR walking with Jerry later in the day, patting him on the back, and saying... "Jerry, my dear friend, let me tell you a story about God's grace..."

[theeagleman5]

You are probably right, Blue....OR surely handled it better than TheEagleman would have....

[ORU Eli]

Wow...I didnt even know they had open dorm hours...oh how times change.