Friday, November 9, 2007

ORU's Bad Week: Problems Mount at Oral U

The news from South Lewis Avenue remains bleak. A page-one headline in Wednesday's Tulsa World gave unwanted publicity to three ORU regents.

The regents, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and Creflo Dollar, have been targeted by Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, who is investigating financial misconduct at ministries associated with each regent.

According to the World, the investigation is focusing on luxuries and generous perks the ministries allowed the televangelists. The luxuries include expensive cars and private jets, the newspaper reported.

This unhappy report was followed by a page-one story in Thursday's World on a much-delayed student center that ORU has raised almost $9 million to build. The building, announced in 2001, remains on the drawing board, yet the site is vacant.

Meanwhile, some of the money raised for the project has been used for scholarships and operating expenses, the newspaper discovered.

As we noted in an earlier post, ORU has more than $50 million in debt, a obligation the school's board is trying to reduce.

We have no idea what all this bad news might mean, but ORU's troubles seems to be growing, not fading.

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