This morning we were confronted by an article entitled the “Oxford Guild under fire” published in the Cherwell student newspaper. This article makes several suggestions but no direct allegations about the Guild.
The article is apparently based on information from anonymous sources. We would like to refute each of the false and baseless claims that have been made by this student newspaper. Every single one of their insinuations is a twist on facts and we can rightfully refute each one and show that it is a misconstruction of the reality and the facts. For example, the article suggests that the Guild tried to register as a University Society ‘several weeks ago’ when in fact the Guild did apply for registration before the July 2011 deadline and checked with the clubs and societies office on a number of occasions over the summer regarding the status of our application. We were advised that our application had been received and was being processed by the University authorities over the Summer.
There is no evidence whatsoever for any of Cherwell’s suggestions or claims about the Guild. They have conducted themselves in an unprofessional manner and have produced a very unprofessional article. We are answerable to our sponsors, the University and our members and are in no way answerable to a newspaper like this. We have had a hugely successful relaunch and this is clear to all. We have invested a huge amount of effort into our promotional campaign, producing 22,000 termcards for example. The Guild has been subjected to a smear campaign, its statements and positions have been misrepresented in the Cherwell article, some of them being based upon accusations said to have been made by unnamed ‘former members’. These accusations are refuted by the current members, the ones who are in a position to know the truth.
We did not and do not send any unsolicited emails – we sent emails only to members on our mailing list who asked to join or had joined themselves or their friends since we relaunched the Society in May that had existed for decades and was the oldest of its type in Oxford. Our mailing list has already been checked and GroupSpaces has confirmed that there is no problem with it.
We did not publish any misleading promotional material.There has been no ‘controversy’ and the Guild is not ‘under fire’ save, it would appear, from the Cherwell which has created its own story. We will be making a formal complaint about Cherwell’s behaviour to the University Proctors.
The Oxford Guild was started by its committee members to provide a service to the students of Oxford University to better understand the Business world and assist the students of the University in making good career decisions based on the information and the events the Guild would host supported by its sponsors. We also believed that potential business sponsors needed access to the students of Oxford University through new and exciting events and media. The Guild is fully transparent in its dealings with our sponsors and the use of the funds raised from them. We are one of the few Oxford societies that will be audited by an external audit firm at the end of the academic year and we are able to provide full audits if requested by sponsors, at any point. We have not responded to Cherwell as we do not believe that we need to justify ourselves to this organization when they are clearly not interested in understanding or listening to the truth. We have produced an exciting programme for the Oxford Student body for 2011/2012 and already our initial events have been a great success. We believe this is what our members, sponsors and the wider student body are interested in.