The Vision: Past, Present & Future
Founded in 1963 by evangelist Oral Roberts, ORU is unlike any university in the world. It is interdenominational, Bible-based, and Holy Spirit-led. It is also visionary, dedicated to raising up students to hear God's voice and to educating the whole person—spirit, mind, and body. Lately, ORU has been working to renew that very vision and to ensure that it is kept strong for generations to come.
As students go through their ORU experience, they come out on the other side with much more than a diploma. If they have applied themselves, they will leave campus spiritually alive, intellectually alert, physically disciplined, socially adept, and professionally competent.
ORU upholds the same strong academics that you would find at any esteemed private university in America. It offers 63 undergraduate majors, 14 master's programs, and two doctoral programs. The faculty of ORU are men and women who aren't just well-versed in their subject matter, but who also have compassion and concern for the spiritual well-being of their students. An attitude of mutual respect sets the tone in faculty/student encounters. Students are challenged to grow socially through relationships with their wings, various clubs and programs, and other social activities around campus. Spiritually, they are engaged with regular chapel services and wing devotions and are encouraged to become active in local churches.
With this foundation of education, spiritual growth, and healthy relationships, the ORU faculty, staff, and students alike are primed to accomplish the ORU mission: going into "every person's world."
The Outward Vision: Community Outreach and Missions
ORU is known in the Tulsa community for its excellent community outreach program. The statistics from the 2007-08 school year alone speak to its magnitude: 7,200 hours volunteered by 921 students at 15 different outreach sites. These outreaches touch the lives of children, youth, immigrants, the elderly, the incarcerated, the homeless, and the mentally ill. ORU Community Outreach also hosts various all-school outreaches throughout the year, while the service learning program invites classroom-based evaluations of community outreach projects. As the students give of themselves to the community and learn the true meaning of servanthood, the vision of ORU grows stronger.
Working in tandem with ORU Community Outreach, ORU Missions shares the responsibility of training servant-leaders. Over spring break, students fan out across the U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico, and South America on weeklong missions. During the summer, hundreds of students go across the world for everything from practical outreaches to worship team tours. In all, the students involved in ORU Missions and Community Outreach exemplify a willingness to give up their own comfort and convenience to answer God's call to their community and to the nations.
The Inward Vision: Academics, Spiritual Growth and Social Life
With a thriving honors program and many opportunities for growth and leadership development, students have the opportunity to discover and strengthen their passions. There are over 50 academic and special-interest clubs, student leadership opportunities such as the chaplain program and resident advisor program, and a myriad of other ways for them to get involved at ORU.
Not only does ORU push its students to excel in the classroom, it gives them opportunities to grow in physical fitness, in relationships with the community both within and outside of the university, and, most importantly, in their relationship with God. ORU also keeps students active by offering both intramural and NCAA Division I sports, and keeps them "spiritually alive" with activities such as chapel services and dorm devotionals led by student chaplains. ORU recognizes that a solid spiritual grounding is essential for students who will someday serve God in a host of professions, from business and the arts to politics and athletics.
ORU is primarily a residential campus, and the dormitory experience is enriched by brother and sister wings, which are the ORU version of fraternities and sororities. Brother-sister wings build healthy relationships by eating meals together in the cafeteria, going on retreats, studying together, and enjoying wholesome social activities. The three-tiered wing leadership—composed of a resident advisor, chaplain, and an academic peer advisor—often helps to organize brother-sister wing functions.
At sporting events, students cheer on their Golden Eagles. ORU is a member of the Summit League and fields eight men's and eight women's teams in these NCAA Division I sports: baseball, basketball, cross-country, indoor and outdoor track, golf, soccer, tennis, and volleyball. Students are admitted at no cost to home events. The ORU Cheer Squad, Dance Squad and beloved mascot Eli the Golden Eagle keep things lively on the sidelines, while the Mabee Maniacs lead the student section in cheering at basketball games.
Fulfilling the Vision: Graduates That Go Far and Wide
ORU has about 23,000 graduates worldwide and a total alumni population of nearly 37,000. A number of these alumni have become best-selling authors, produced movies, won Emmy awards, been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes, won public office, hosted television programs, and started their own companies. That's in addition to those who are serving God quietly and faithfully in more traditional professions.
Most importantly, ORU graduates have taken seriously the vision of ORU by listening to God's voice, "going where His light is seen dim, His voice is heard small, and His healing power is not known." They are effecting change in the world—one life at a time—that will count for eternity.