On Oct. 27, the Management Undergraduate Society (MUS) announced that its president, Élie Lubendo, had resigned from his position.

“Due to personal reasons, Élie, elected as the President and Chairman for a one-year term in February of 2015, tendered his resignation from this role on October 20th, 2015,” the MUS wrote in a letter that was sent out to society members. “During Élie’s tenure, he laid the groundwork for substantial positive change and significantly contributed to the Society as a whole.”

According to the MUS Constitution, the responsibilities of the president, which include serving as the chair of the MUS Executive Council and Board of Directors, will be covered by Vice-President (VP) Academic Aarushi Kumar until the new president is elected. Kumar noted that she will be able to integrate the new responsibilities into her existing portfolio mandate.

“Fortunately, the Academic portfolio has a considerable amount of overlap with the presidential role already,” said Kumar. “Our constitution states that the VP Academic will take over should the president ever resign, and thus the role was designed to be able to make the transition with very minimal difficulty.”

Kumar explained that since the president and the VP Academic already sit on the same committees the new responsibilities will be limited.

“The main role of my [current] position is to be the liaison between the Faculty and the undergraduate students,” Kumar said. “I also sit in as a voting member on various committees alongside Desautels faculty and staff, representing the overall interest of the student body. The president also sits on these committees, so a majority of the responsibilities will already be covered. The added responsibilities include being the external face to the entire McGill Community and continue to maintain the long term vision and goals of the MUS.”

The nomination period for presidential candidate began on Oct. 28 with the release of nomination packet materials on the MUS website. The packages are due on Nov. 2, and voting will follow soon after this deadline, explained VP Communication Wendy Erica Lai.

“Campaigning officially begins on [Nov. 3], and then […] we’ll be hosting the presidential debates in[the] Bronfman basement on [Nov. 4],” Lai said. “On [Nov. 10], the campaigning period ends and the voting period begins. On Sunday [Nov.15] our voting period will end and on [Nov. 16] we’ll have an announcement of the new president via MUS emails [….] The new president will be in office by [Nov. 16] and […] April 30 is their end date.”