EXCLUSIVE - Dr. Paulita Brooker Speaks Out on ORU to Morris O'Kelly

The following is Dr. Paulita Brooker's (2nd from the right - Photo courtesy of AP) official statement as to why she and two others (Dr. John Swails and Dr. Tim Brooker) filed their recent lawsuit against Oral Roberts University. This is another Mo'Kelly Report EXCLUSIVE. Dr. Brooker and I had been corresponding for the better part of this week in trying to bring this together and I'm exceptionally pleased that she chose The Mo'Kelly Report as her first platform. Below Dr. Brooker speaks freely on her time at Oral Roberts University, the contributing factors leading up to the lawsuit and what she hopes to accomplish beyond the stipulations in the lawsuit.

I would like to again thank Dr. Brooker for her candor, sincerity and willingness to move beyond simply the litigation and increase the dialogue. She agreed to offer commentary with great trepidation and respect for her present employer. To that end, Dr. Brooker again deserves both tremendous thanks and credit. Without further adieu, here is Dr. Brooker's statement, unabridged and unedited...for The Mo'Kelly Report.

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Let me begin by saying that we have always had the highest regard for the University. Before I began formally teaching at the university, I had been actively involved with the students through my husband. The students and faculty at ORU are among the finest anywhere, and it was because I enjoyed working with them that I wanted to be employed there. The academic quality is unequaled, and I will defend that regardless of any other issues that have arisen.

The morale in my particular department was extremely low for various reasons.

One undeniable fact is that there has always been a fear among students, staff, and faculty of stepping on toes and what might happen. Over and over again while I was there I heard stories regarding how employees and even students had been treated and I was asked more than once by both why I even wanted to keep my job there. Each time the subject came up the long time employees would make the statement, "It's what they have always done, I wish someone would finally stand up to them."

Even though we have not had much direct contact with former colleagues since leaving, we have heard that the majority are glad to have these things out in the open finally and one statement that was made directly to me was that there is a love/hate relationship on campus: they love the university and hate the administration.

Of course there are those that don't think we should have filed a lawsuit. That was not our first choice, and we had not planned on doing so. As stated many times, we love the university and we love the students. We want it to survive, which is why we took the file to administration to begin with. With the current financial constraints the university was operating under, the information in the files whether true or untrue could be the death knell were they to go unaddressed. However, the fear of asking questions or taking a stand evidently outweighed the long term welfare of the university.

If we were trying to help the university address a problem internally and as a result we all found ourselves without jobs, ask yourself what the average person would do if they worked in a different company and the same thing happened. It's not about money; it's about someone finally standing up and saying, you can't continue to operate in this manner.

If nothing else comes of it, we will have accomplished something just by taking a stand. I won't use the exact writings because I do not have the student's permission but when I was first released from the university the students saw the handwriting on the wall so to speak and began their own campaign to show their support for us as professors and mentors.

This particular student in her posting wrote that one thing they had heard many times as government majors was that they had to be prepared as Christians to take a stand. She was calling on the government majors to take a stand in support of their professors.

This hit home with us for the simple reason that if we have told these kids they needed to be prepared to do something, we have to be willing to do the same. If we had just said, oh well-we tried, and left it at that we would have been guilty of talking the talk but not walking the walk.

Does that make it easy? No way...it is extremely difficult, not just for us but for our families as well. But we know that God has directed us down this path. That's all that really matters.

- Dr. Paulita Brooker