Gale VanAmburg, a third-year contemporary studies and history student, is the new president of the King’s Student Union. 

After previously serving as communications vice president, VanAmburg spoke with The Watch about their goals for the year ahead and the issues facing the King’s student body.

Qori Aparicio: Introduce yourself to the King’s student body! Who are you inside and outside of the King’s Student Union (KSU)?

Gale VanAmburg: I’m Gale VanAmburg. I’m a third-year contemporary studies and history student. I use they/them pronouns. I like to write and bake, and I’m an older sibling. 

I also just became the president of the KSU. Before that, I was the communications vice president. You might know me from [This Week at King’s (TWAK)]. I apologize if you don’t like those emails. 

Outside of the union, I love disability history. It’s what I’ve been trying to focus on in my degree. Outside of the union, I try to get involved in community-building projects. I was born in Ottawa and grew up doing a lot of community-building work there. Lately, more so in the disability community. I also worked at a summer camp for people with developmental disabilities, which was really nice because it connected me to a broader community in Ottawa. I’ve been able to transfer some of the skills I learned there into this role.

QA: How did you end up running for the role of KSU President?

GV: I began participating in the KSU in my first year at King’s because I wanted to revitalize the Disabled Students Collective, but it was hard to do while also doing FYP. Then, in my second year, I decided to participate in O-Week and got a lot of support from the [current] outgoing KSU president, Ellie Anderson. She really encouraged me to get involved in the KSU, so I did, and I ran for academic representative. I enjoyed that, then I ran for communications vice president and loved that too. 

To be honest, I didn’t have presidential aspirations at first, but through different conversations, I realized that maybe it would be something that I’d like to do, especially because in the communications VP role, you get to do a lot of internal union things, but you don’t have a lot of face-to-face time with administration. Also, I spent a lot of time in my fall term advocating against the removal of the note-taking program, so I thought, “maybe I can keep working on this at the presidential level.”

QA: What are your goals for the upcoming year as president?

GV: This is a really boring answer, but I want to revamp a lot of our internal operating policy. It’s outdated, and it’s not communicated very well. 

I’m also hoping to have more communication with the student body and to gather a lot of feedback, then implement it. We’re always trying to work on student engagement.

QA: What is the KSU looking forward to next year?

GV: I really love the KSU. We have some really amazing people involved. I’m hoping that we’ve created more momentum regarding student engagement this year. I don’t remember seeing much from the union in my first year, but I think Ellie and Sara [MacCallum] did a lot of great work in that regard. I want to build on that. 

I hope that we’ll be more of an open space for students, and I hope that students will involve themselves in whatever way they feel most comfortable. I’m also hoping to have more social events and to continue working on navigating protections for students during this time of political upheaval. 

I also want to do more work with the faculty. We’ve been doing some great work with the University of King’s College Teachers’ Association. I want to continue building that relationship.

QA: What are the main challenges facing the King’s student body right now?

GV: I know it’s discussed endlessly, but I think AI is a huge problem. Especially given the creative and writing nature of our school, I think it’s a really unique challenge for students. How do we protect students from AI use accusations? 

We will be writing a ‘No AI’ policy for union activities. If students want that policy, I’ll write it and [we] can have it.

Also, King’s has found itself in a very precarious financial situation. I think continuing to communicate with students about it in a digestible way and empowering students to tell the administration how they feel about that is really important.

There also needs to be huge changes in the King’s accessibility office.

Generally, we want to continue working to make King’s a more equitable place and a more welcoming place for everyone, especially those students who have historically been marginalized.

I also think that it’s really easy to feel disillusioned and disenfranchised right now, and I hope that the union can do more work that fosters joy because I think that makes it easier to engage in community and politics. And [in] life.

QA: What changes can students anticipate in the new KSU budget? Can you tell me anything about it? 

GV: We’re collecting a lot of very interesting things in the current budget survey. Right now, there’s nothing too crazy there. You’ll see the budget and all of that at our Spring [Annual] General Meeting.

I will say that by the end of my term, we will be caught up on the accounting stuff that fell through the cracks around the COVID era. I wasn’t around then, but we’re going to fix that.

QA: Any message to the King’s student body?

GV: I’m really thankful for this opportunity, and I appreciate students showing interest in the union in any capacity. I hope to continue to hear from you guys. Please come see us during our office hours or email us. I’m always super happy to chat. If you have anything that you would like to see from the union, or if you have anything that you would like to get off the ground and need some help with, we’re more than happy to help