Dear faculty and staff of OU Student Media,

The Beta Kappa chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity offers its sincerest apologies for taking The Oklahoma Daily newspapers on Sept. 30. The actions taken that day by a group of members were unacceptable and by no means represent the behavior that Sigma Chi strives to maintain.

We regret the inconvenience and disrespect you incurred that day. We understand that a simple sorry should not be sufficient, but we hope you accept our apology and our future efforts to make amends.

Please be assured that our executive council and judicial board are taking appropriate measures to discipline those who were involved and will not make light of the situation. We fully understand that our actions do not portray how OU and our fraternity expect members to act.

We genuinely regret our actions, and we would like to assure you that we shall never resort to such unethical means in the future.

Sincerely,

The men of Sigma Chi

The Oklahoma Daily ran a special ad-free section Sept. 30. The section covered the five year anniversary of then-OU freshman Blake Hammontree’s death, what, if any, changes had been made to OU’s alcohol policy, the policy’s effectiveness and how the Sigma Chi fraternity has tried to move forward after this tragic event.

This section had been in the works since late August, and multiple Daily staff members dedicated extra time to gathering the information presented in the section.

Knowing the section would touch on a few soft spots, we also took extra care in reporting the stories and trying to provide the most accurate and fair information. Unfortunately, students’ access to this information was limited after a few members of Sigma Chi decided to take more than 1,000 copies of The Daily from our racks.

We were angry at first, but who wouldn’t be after spending so much time and energy?

But The Daily is an organization made up entirely of students. We aren’t immune to making mistakes and I’ll be the first to admit that.

And while we take pride in what we do here, we must apply the same understanding to other campus groups, including Sigma Chi.

Sigma Chi has apologized and we sincerely accept that apology. We don’t harbor any ill feelings toward Sigma Chi and hope The Daily, Sigma Chi and other organizations can use this as a learning opportunity.

— Jamie Hughes is editor-in-chief of The Oklahoma Daily and a political science junior.