Jane Cahill’s presidential campaign suffered an embarrassing online glitch today, as her website was found to redirect to the OUSU website.
For about an hour on Monday, when accessing the URL www.jane4change.com, Internet users were taken to the student union’s homepage instead.
The redirection was intended to be to her manifesto, which is stored on the OUSU website. However, a glitch ensured that users were accidentally directed to the OUSU homepage.
After being alerted to the error by The Oxford Student, Jane4Change has now fixed the problem; the website now redirects to the campaign’s Facebook page.
The other OUSU candidates were quick to respond. Nathan Akehurst, presidential candidate of the ‘Reclaim OUSU’ slate, whose website experienced a similarly embarrassing glitch last week, said: “Linking one’s website to OUSU is slightly counting chickens before they hatch, but I’m certainly in no position to take the high ground over website cock-ups. I hope it’s quickly fixed so I can see more policies and fewer generic slogans.”
Alex Bartram, presidential candidate of Team Alex and JCR President of Balliol, commented: “This isn’t going to help Jane4Change dodge the accusation that they are OUSU running for OUSU, rather than a campaign that seeks to bring the sort of change students want and address tangible issues. Petting zoos, in-principle agreements and mug-painting is not what I’ve heard students asking for from their student union.”
He added: “I think it’s fair to say that the other two campaigns so far have both experienced organisational disasters with their websites […] [S]tudents need competent people representing them who can run campaigns without any embarrassments along the way.”
Abbas Kazmi, a prominent campaigner for joke candidate Louis Trup, exclaimed: “Supporters of LJTrup4ousu4change are spurred on even more by this news – come 6th week the movement will take Oxford by storm, inspiring thousands to dream! The OUSU website might as well have a notice ready about the new Oxford monorail and the abolition of 5th week… Watch this space… #yolo #nuffsaid.”
In response to these comments, Jane Cahill, who has previously served as JCR President of Queen’s, said: “As is evident, we don’t have a particularly sophisticated website so it messed up for an hour or so. We wanted our website to redirect to our manifestos or Facebook but it ended up going to the student union homepage. It’s now fixed.”
Jane4Change is fielding 18 candidates for the upcoming OUSU elections in 6th week.
