Woes at Oral Roberts U. Include Millions in Deferred Maintenance

The 200-foot-tall Prayer Tower is one of the Jetsonian buildings at Oral Roberts University. The campus faces about $60-million in deferred maintenance. (Photo by Jonathan Thompson)

Ben Gose, a reporter for The Chronicle, recently visited Oral Roberts University and found a campus with 23 buildings badly in need of repair. “The university is still $25-million in debt, and its buildings suffer from an estimated $60-million in deferred maintenance,” he writes. Much of the architecture is described as “futuristic,” like something out of The Jetsons.

The Prayer Tower

“The university’s biggest albatross, what was once a center combining medicine and spirituality, features a 60-story tower that dominates the southern end of campus,” Mr. Gose writes. “The center opened in 1981, at a cost of $150-million, but failed within a decade. (University officials rent out the building and envision a day when that cash will help cover university operations.)”

Last year, the university faced a series of scandals that led to the resignation of the president, Richard L. Roberts, the son of the founder. One lawsuit, filed against the university by a former accountant, alleged that more than $1-billion per year was funneled through the university, possibly to regents. Most people on campus laugh off that claim. “If we knew about a billion dollars,” said Ralph Fagin, the interim university president, “this roof would look a lot better.”