TULSA, Okla. — More than a year after Richard Roberts resigned as president of Oral Roberts University (ORU) amid allegations of lavish spending, the charismatic Christian university in Tulsa, Okla., has hired a new president.
Mark Rutland, president of Southeastern University, a Christian liberal arts college in Lakeland, Fla., since 1999, will take the helm of ORU on July 1, the university’s board of trustees said Jan. 28.
Rutland will become the third president in ORU’s 46-year history — after namesake Oral Roberts and son Richard Roberts — and the first not associated with the Roberts family. Interim President Ralph Fagin will return to his post as provost.
“He has been selected as a result of a careful process, and we are confident that he will take the university to new heights while continuing to uphold the mission and vision of Oral Roberts University,” said board chairman Mart Green, a Christian businessman whose family salvaged ORU with a $70 million donation after its financial problems surfaced in 2007.
Rutland, who holds a doctorate from the California Graduate School of Theology in La Habra, Calif., has written 13 books and hosts a daily 30-minute radio program called “Herald of Joy.”
In his 10 years at Southeastern, the university has undergone more than $50 million in renovations and enrollment has more than tripled, topping 3,000, ORU officials said.
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