Poll finds ⅔ of Tulsans now believe conspiracy theory that Carson did not retire himself.
“There is no list. There has never been a list, and, frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about him because nobody cares about Brad Carson.” These were the words of interim President Rick Dickson on the ongoing speculation over his supposed visits to former President Brad Carson’s lakehouse. This comes in spite of Dickson’s repeated promises to release the investigative files and list of Brad Carson’s personal guests made throughout his years-long campaign to become president of The University of Tulsa. At times, Provost Jennifer Airey even claimed that the lists were “on her desk,” and that she was just awaiting approval from Dickson to release the files.
Brad Carson had a long history of parties at his lakehouse, which features a 300-foot-long ballroom, an AMC movie theater and a full-length racetrack for horse betting in the basement (for more, see “Carson Raises Housing Prices, claims ‘we’re all tightening our belts’”). His guest list included the most influential people in Tulsa, and for decades Rick Dickson was assumed to be at the top of that list. In fact, Carson often commented on how glad he was to have Dickson as a friend, and all the amazing time they spent together fishing on Carson’s favorite dock — the fourth of 17 personal docks Carson has on his lakehouse property. Dickson, however, claims that he “never had the privilege of going to Carson’s lakehouse.”
Brad Carson led the University of Tulsa as its president for four years. He somehow managed to handle the immense responsibilities of the position while personally overseeing 13 new additions to his already five-story and 150-acre lakehouse. However, in 2025, he suddenly retired under mysterious circumstances. A recent poll found out that two-thirds of the Tulsa population believes that Carson did not choose to retire himself, a conspiracy theory stemming from his recently discovered overspending habits. It certainly was shocking for a man with so many personal home renovations, not to mention rumors of buying property in Hawaii soon, to give up such a steady paycheck.
“Some media outlets are saying I’m overspending, and that’s just fake news,” President Dickson recently said in an interview, “that’s utterly false because I am the greatest president of the University of Tulsa ever, no one’s done it like me, no, everybody says that it’s completely better and that we have so much more money, they ask me, President Dickson, where did you come up with all this money, and I said, well, it’s because of me and what I’ve done. Believe me, The University of Tulsa has never been better, but there’s still so many problems, way too many people taking advantage of us, so many bad deals set up by the previous administration, so I’m implementing a 125% tariff on all dining dollar purchases.” It remains to be seen whether there actually is more money available to the university. In the meantime, the public continues to scrutinize Dickson’s relationship to Carson, and is not convinced that Dickson has better spending habits than Carson.
The focus of this speculation over Dickson’s involvement with Carson is a letter Dickson supposedly sent to Carson. On it is drawn a canoe, where inside the canoe, a note is written expressing how loved and appreciated the person felt at the party and how they loved being treated to an all-exclusive tour of the art museum inside Carson’s house, which includes among other things the Hope Diamond, which Carson bought in 2022 for $450 million dollars (see “The University of Tulsa once again considers cutting the meal trade system: ‘Just not enough money flowing in’”). At the bottom of said letter is Rick Dickson’s signature. Dickson, however, has claimed that that is not his easily-recognizable and world-wide famous signature, and that the whole letter is a hoax conjured up to try to force him out of his office as president. “That’s not me, that’s not the way I talk,” claimed President Dickson. “besides, I don’t draw pictures.” Many claim that this contradicts the fact that Dickson is an avid canoer, and has even talked about canoeing with Carson. “No, I wasn’t friends with Carson. I would just see him from time to time, send him cards, occasionally have long calls on the phone about how to spend university funding; many such cases” Dickson said in response to questions about his trips to the lake.
Interim President Rick Dickson @utulsa on Instagram
Dickson had already given out parts of the files he now claims were nonexistent, handing them out to many of his friends and colleagues. Most of the recipients are also under review for allegations of overspending, like Brad Carson, and some of them are also claimed to have visited Carson’s lakehouse. However, some outside sources without histories of extreme spending (anyone without the national merit scholarship) who also received copies of the list state that it is merely repeating the same few censored things that were already released about Carson’s lakehouse. No further questions could be asked of these sources, however, as they immediately spun the interview into a discussion of how this culture of overspending because of their particular field being utterly disgraced and ruined by the lack of funding and attention given to it.
In an update to the case, an unidentified object was seen last Tuesday being thrown out of Rick Dickson’s window. Eyewitnesses describe the throw as being very unsatisfactory, as President Dickson’s office is only on the second floor so it didn’t have very far to travel before it plopped onto the grass. Many students believe these to be the files, although President Dickson and Provost Airey have repeatedly denied this. Dickson first tried to claim that the videos of this event were AI, and upon being told that there were only eyewitnesses, claimed that the people themselves were AI set up by rival deans hoping to usurp his position and take over the university. Further investigation has not concluded whether some of the STEM students who were eyewitnesses were really just poorly-made AI, as Dickson claims.
In his last words on the subject, President Dickson did concede that Provost Airey might soon release parts of the Carson investigation that are, in his own words, “credible.” Why an investigation might have taken place that didn’t reveal only credible information is unsure. It remains to be seen whether anything else is revealed under the pressure from the student body.
