On the front page TULSA WORLD, OCTOBER 3 title(blast victim was a loner) Hinrichs father stated his son, Joel Henry Hinrichs III was a lifelong loner with no social skills, no ability to bond, did not even attempt to know his own roommate and a national merit scholar. You would think Dr. Boren's O.U. PROSPECTIVE STUDENT AND UNIVERSITY ENTRY REVIEW STAFF that tries extremely hard so that it makes the university look high profile when David Boren boasts of the number of national merit scholars O.U. has would have reviewed Hinrichs recommendation letters from his high school teachers, principal, and personal references that would have allerted them (univ.of okla) to his abnormal and severe social problems. The student also had seen a counselor at O.U. so O.U. was already aware. Giving national merit scholars scholarships at O.U. with known depression(students also have to fill out a health history and an EXTENSIVE survey when the university matches them as a freshman with another roommate. His lifelong lack of social skills is a safety problem for other O.U. students and considering their approx. 84,000 attendance home games. The junior engineering major at O.U.according to news reports took his own life when no one else was around. Let's hope O.U. does a more thorough review process of prospective students. I know when O.U. tries to desperately get the national merits to come to O.U. as students, there is a meeting where student reps. tells the parents and prospective students that any student should be able to find
some group where they will fit in. The student that committed suicide belonged to a math and engineering fraternity, but he moved out of the fraternity house because he did not bond and did not relate well with those students. That should have been a red flag and allert to the University of Oklahoma because their housing director keeps track of that information.
There are a lot of great kids that deserve scholarships at O.U. that never receive the academic and other MERIT scholarships past their freshman year. O.U. was swayed to give a student that had intentions of going to O.S.U. a full scholarship to O.U. just because of a t.v. national news station thought it would give high publicity to O.U. if they made the deal when O.U. knows it already has a huge list of extremely deserving sophomore, junior, and seniors that deserved the alumni and O.U. foundation scholarship money a lot more!!!!!!!!! My sincere sympathy to the Hinrichs family. A thorough investigation should be done by O.U. and news reporters on his health history and student recommendation letters to see if the university fell short and if the student failed to provide truthful information about himself when receiving the national merit scholarships as a student at O.U. The O.U. foundation that gives scholarships should also do an investigation.