The Oxford Guild, a student society which describes itself as “Oxford and the UK’s largest and oldest student careers society,” has suffered a number of resignations from senior committee members objecting to the “current framework and culture within the Oxford Guild.”
Over half of the Oxford Guild’s senior committee co-signed a letter of resignation submitted at 12.01am this morning. Out of the present executive committee of nine, only the President, Chairman and two of the four Vice Presidents remain.
In the letter of resignation shared with Cherwell, the co-signatories state, “We are against the continued counterproductive involvement of certain individuals that are no longer at the University and yet insist on being omnipotent within the Guild.
“We would like to express our gratitude to those students that we have worked with, either alongside or under, and in particular, to the current President, who has done his utmost to try to keep us together as a cohesive society.
“However, after countless efforts, we have come to the unfortunate conclusion that it is not possible to align the culture of the Oxford Guild with our idea of working within a society that is focused on adding value to students, run in a meritocratic and transparent manner, with a clear framework to underpin it.”
In addition to the resignations from the executive committee, 11 further committee members, including the Guild Ball President, have also signed the letter announcing their resignation with immediate effect.
The co-signatories also announce their launching of a new student organistion, saying, “We have decided to build the Oxford Student Foundation, which will exemplify our beliefs, values and ideas; and will focus on areas that the Oxford Guild does not effectively cover.”
Speaking to Cherwell about the project, the co-signatories said, “The Oxford Student Foundation is a unique platform that offers a network of initiatives – providing students with hands-on experience and valuable opportunity. The Foundation and its revolutionary approach, allows students to discover the work that truly inspires them.OSF will link together a number of existing societies such as the Oxford Microfinance Initiative and the Oxford Strategy Group, and will found Initiatives in areas such as law, entrepreneurship, asset management and banking, that do not currently exist. The unique framework of OSF leaves scope for further expansion into other areas through the founding of new Initiatives. Further details will be revealed when we launch at the start of Trinity 2016.”
The Oxford Student Foundation’s website was launched last night.
The Oxford Guild in its current form was launched by Abbas Kazmi, and Adam Chekroud in 2012. Kazmi has left the University but remains Chairman of the Guild and remains involved in the day-to-day running of the society’s affairs.
The Guild is a careers society that organises careers opportunities, including speaker and networking events, and is sponsored by organisations including Goldman Sachs, KPMG and JP Morgan.
The Society has also hosted a number of high-profile speakers. A year ago on Wednesday, the Guild hosted Kanye West as a speaker and is expected to be hosting UK Grime MC Stormzy on Monday.
The Vice-President for speakers, Shakeel Hashim, was one of the cosignatories to the letter of resignation.
This wave of resignations follows the resignation last term of then-President Alexi Andriopoulous.
The Guild has now published a response.
