OKLAHOMA CITY (RNS) More than a year after Richard Roberts resigned as president of Oral Roberts University amid allegations of lavish spending, the charismatic Christian university in Tulsa 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 Wednesday (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 Ph.D. from the California Graduate School of Theology, 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.
He was chosen from a list of more than 130 names by an ORU presidential search committee that “followed the leading of the Holy Spirit” throughout the selection process, the university said in a news release.
J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine and a critic of what he calls the “materialism, flashy self-promotion and foolish carnality” of certain charismatic evangelists, praised the choice.
“Mark Rutland is a perfect choice to lead Oral Roberts University into the future,” Grady said in an interview. “He is known for his integrity and for his business savvy. He helped get a large church out of debt in Orlando. Then he helped turn Southeastern University around and made it a world-class school. I expect to see vast improvements when he takes the helm at ORU.”
