Students for Justice in Palestine is circulating a petition denouncing Oracle Human Capital Management rollover.
On Friday, Oct. 3, students at The University of Tulsa received an email blast announcing that “the University will transition from Paycom & PeopleAdmin to Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) beginning January 2026.” The announcement explained that the university aims to improve automation and efficiency while “conserving financial resources.” It also confirmed that this switch had been under consideration for multiple years. Senior Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Mona Chamberlin explained, “[t]he university continuously seeks best-in-class products. Oracle is widely recognized in higher education as a top-tier provider of personnel management and resource planning solutions.” Though the change had gone through a long period of consideration internally, the recent email blast was the first time the student body was alerted to it. “Though the switch to Oracle has been in the works since 2023, we only learned of it on Oct. 3rd of this year. The decision to announce such a sweeping change so [late] has taken many of us by surprise,” student Adrian Warwick said.
Warwick is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, a student group that advocates for justice for the Palestinian people and the liberation of Palestine. SJP responded to the decision to switch to Oracle by writing a letter to the administration expressing opposition to the move and circulating a petition allowing TU students to do the same. The petition surpassed its original goal of 300 signatures, sitting at 316 as of Oct. 19. “Israel has occupied Palestine for 77 years and has been found by the [United Nations] to have been committing a genocide for the last 2 years,” SJP member Luke Ternes said, adding “Oracle is actively dedicated to funding the Israeli military, sending millions of dollars. One of Oracle’s co-founders, Larry Ellison, is the top private donor to the Israeli military in the entire world. We are demanding that our university acknowledges the atrocities committed by Israel and cuts ties with any entity supporting their apartheid.”
SJP is calling on the TU community to sign a petition and halt the transfer of services. Courtesy of @sjp.tu on Instagram.
A statement given by the university to SJP indicates that they will “carefully monitor the actions of this and all vendors in case it is necessary to change course;” Marketing and Communications Director Chamberlin added that the school is “not currently in a position to reconsider.” Barring any unforeseen event, it appears the rollover will proceed as planned in January. “The response from the student body has been mixed. Many of the students on our campus are completely apathetic,” Ternes said. The initial announcement email from the Office of Human Resources promised meetings with staff and faculty to answer questions about this change, and it remains to be seen how those will affect the temperature on campus. For now, there has been little indication that the administration will reconsider this switch.
