KSU finance VP steps in as interim president, won’t run in fall by-election 

King’s Students’ Union interim president, Olivia Chaput, will not run for president at the union’s by-elections in early October. 

Chaput took office on Sept. 20 after the union’s former president, Gail VanAmburg, stepped down due to health concerns, reducing the KSU executive team to only two people, with three executive positions vacant. 

“It’s important that people understand that I’m not doing this for myself,” she says. “I’m doing this, not necessarily reluctantly, but because I think that it’s the best option for the student union at large,” Chaput says.

Chaput’s vice-presidential duties will be divided between her and the union’s other executive. The KSU is warning some union work may be delayed or limited as a result. 

Nomination packages for open positions were due Oct. 4. The date of the by-election has not been announced.  

The president elected in the by-election will serve the remainder of VanAmburg’s term, which will conclude in March 2027. 

Chaput nominated herself for the role at a closed-door emergency council meeting to replace the president on Sept. 20. 

Chaput says she ran because she’s the longest-serving executive with the KSU, but will not be running for president in the by-election. She will return to her vice-presidential role, which she does not need to re-campaign for.

“I never anticipated becoming the president at all … I’m more comfortable with that sort of behind-the-scenes role, but this was unforeseen circumstances,” says Chaput. 

Iman Mannathukkaren, the KSU’s external vice-president and only other executive, says that reimbursement for societies may be delayed due to the short-staffed executive team.

“It is unfortunate, but it is just how it’s going to be for a little bit … It’s not going to be for too long.”

As interim president, Chaput plans to continue VanAmburg’s advocacy work and mentions programs that support students in their daily lives as a priority, including the free sexual health and menstrual products provided by the KSU. 

Chaput is in her fourth year of English and cinema studies and plans to take a fifth year to finish her degree.  

She joined the KSU’s finance committee, bylaw review committee and elections committee in her first year at King’s.

In her second year, Chaput ran unopposed for the vacant financial vice-president position at an October by-election and was re-elected to the role in last year’s February general election, also unopposed. 

She says she hopes students feel like they can talk to their execs if they feel unsupported by the KSU.

“Some people think of the student union as somewhat fixed in what we are doing, but the student union is to serve the students.”