The chairman of Oral Roberts University's board of regents told applauding students in a chapel service on Wednesday that any corrections that need to be made to the university will be made.
Chairman George Pearsons, co-pastor of Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas, said regents have approved an independent investigation into allegations made against the university last week in a lawsuit. The outside group that will perform the investigation has not been formed, Pearsons said.
"Honestly, every organization has problems," he said after the chapel service on campus. "If there's something that needs to be fixed, let's fix it."
Pearsons personally apologized to students for the tumult they have gone through since the lawsuit was filed Oct. 2 in Tulsa County District Court. The suit, filed by three former professors, included allegations that ORU President Richard Roberts and his family misspent university and Oral Roberts Ministries money.
The Rev. Billy Joe Daugherty, of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, gave the sermon during the chapel service and announced that this week he had been asked to rejoin ORU's board of regents and he had accepted. He "stepped out of the board of regents in mid-June" but returned because "my heart has always been here at ORU since the time I first came."
