Oral Roberts University

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The Avenue of Flags at the main entrance to campus
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The Avenue of Flags at the main entrance to campus

Oral Roberts University or ORU, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the largest charismatic Christian university in the world. The school has an enrollment of over 5,000 students who come from every state in the U.S. and attracts a significant number of international students. Its undergraduate programs include theology, communication arts, modern languages, behavioral sciences, graphics, and nursing. The university also has a seminary, a graduate Education program, and a graduate business school.

The university is named for its founder, televangelist Oral Roberts.

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[edit] Whole Person Education

One of the core values of ORU is "educating the whole person". This means educating the mind, body, and spirit. Educating the body, for example, means that all students are required to attend a physical education course every semester and are expected to maintain good physical fitness. As for educating the spirit, all students must attend chapel services twice a week. There are also student chaplains for each "wing" or "floor" of on-campus housing.

[edit] Student codes

All students are required to sign a pledge stating they will live according to the university's honor code. Prohibited activities include lying, cursing, smoking, drinking, gambling, illicit sexual acts, and homosexual behavior. In early 2004 the student dress code was greatly relaxed for the first time in forty years. Prior to that time, men were required to wear button-down shirts and ties, while women were required to wear skirts (with an exception for winter months added in 2000). The dress code could now be described as "business casual". In 2006, the dress code was relaxed even further, allowing students to wear jeans to class, and for the first time, allowing men to wear non-button-down shirts (i.e., t-shirts.) However, restrictions for men on hair length and facial hair still remain, as well as a rule against men wearing earrings.[1]

[edit] Unique architecture

Futurist architecture trims the campus. The Avenue of Flags is the main entrance to Oral Roberts University, and is lined with lighted flags representing more than 60 nations from which ORU students have come. The centerpiece of the Avenue of Flags is the 60 ft (18.2 m), 30 ton Praying Hands, the largest bronze structure in the world. The main campus building, the 900,000 square foot (80,000 m²) John D. Messick Learning Resource Center / Marajen Chinigo Graduate Center, is styled after King Solomon's Temple. The 3,500 seat Christ's Chapel is the location of bi-weekly university chapel services and was constructed in a drape-like fashion as an homage to Oral Roberts' early tent revivals. In the center of campus is the Prayer Tower, which is said to resemble "an abstract cross and Crown of Thorns." It also houses the campus visitor center. The Mabee Center, an arena seating over 11,000 people, is located at the southwestern edge of the campus and is home to basketball games, concerts, church services, and satellite television productions. In 1981, the City of Faith Medical and Research Center opened, but it closed in 1989 due to financial problems and is now rented as commercial office space under the name CityPlex.

The King Solomon's Temple-style Learning Resource Center / Graduate Center
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The King Solomon's Temple-style Learning Resource Center / Graduate Center

[edit] History

Televangelist Oral Roberts founded the institution in 1963, claiming God had given him the following commissions:

"Build Me a University. Build it on My Authority, and on the Holy Spirit."

and

"Raise up your students to hear my voice, to go where my light is dim, where my voice is heard small, and my healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well pleased."

The first students enrolled in 1965. Richard Roberts, Oral Roberts' son, was named President in 1993. The school received accreditation in 1971 from The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and also has several other academic accreditations.[2]

[edit] Controversy

ORU has been criticized as endorsing unorthodox doctrines about faith. Critics cite Oral Roberts' connection with Word of Faith doctrine and how it has been used for self promotion and justification for economic materialism by numerous people. Oral Roberts helped pioneer the concept of "Seed Faith." Coming from a rural farming area, Roberts associated personal acts of God as a result of previous investment into God's will, like a plant grows from the investment of a seed. Critics claim that this is equivalent to being able to buy a miracle and makes God into a manipulable party.

Interestingly, however, one of the earliest critics of the Word of Faith movement was Charles Farah, a professor at Oral Roberts University. One of his students, Daniel Ray McConnell, submitted a PhD thesis to the university detailing his assertion that the teachings of the movement are heretical. It was later published in a book, A Different Gospel, in 1988.[3]

[edit] Athletics

Oral Roberts University is a member of the Mid-Continent Conference, and the men's basketball team, coached by Scott Sutton, went to the 2006 NCAA tournament as the #16 seed, but lost in the first round to #1 seeded Memphis. On November 15, 2006, the unranked Oral Roberts basketball team stunned the #3 team in the nation, the University of Kansas, at the Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, 78-71.

ORU's athletic teams are known as the Golden Eagles, a change which became effective on April 30, 1993.

Originally, ORU's nicknames were the Titans for men and the Lady Titans for women. These monikers were adopted in 1965 by a vote of the student body, many of whom were from the East Coast or were either casual or serious New York Titans (now known as Jets) football fans.

The nicknames endured until 1993, when a search for a new nickname was concluded with the selection of the Golden Eagles. ORU's new mascot, "Eli" the Golden Eagle, hatched out of his papier-mache egg on November 17, 1993, before the start of an exhibition basketball game. With this unveiling, the Golden Eagle nickname became the official symbol of a new era in ORU athletics.

[edit] ORU in popular culture

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Ties and Skirts: Addressing the Issue (English) (HTML). ORU:Alumni Foundation. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
  2. ^ http://admissions.oru.edu/accreditationfacts.html
  3. ^ D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel, updated edition, (Hendrickson, 1995).


Mid-Continent Conference
Centenary • IUPUI • Oakland • Oral Roberts • Southern Utah • UMKC • Valparaiso • Western Illinois
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