KSA Approves $30,000 for Peer Support Conferences

The funding is more than double what it has been in the past

Approximately $30,000 was approved by the Kwantlen Student Association to be spent across three peer conferences this year. According to the KSA’s VP Finance & Operations, Rawan Ramini, the proposal to fund these events was originally higher by about $5,000, but was decreased and finally approved by the KSA executive team.

The spending will accommodate a third conference this year, whereas funding was only allocated to two peer conferences in the past. The new event is called “The Big U” and will focus on personal wellness. The difference between this conference and the “Pieces of Mind: Mental Health” conference is not yet clear.

“[The events] were really, really successful, and the turnouts were way better than the peer support team expected. They were expecting something small scale [that] had a very good turnout,” says Ramini. As a result, they have increased the scale of each conference and spent much more time planning the promotion and events themselves this year.

Ramini also cites the presence of Laci Green, a Sex Ed teacher and YouTuber with 1.5 million subscribers, at this year’s Sexpo conference as another reason for the high cost. Green has spoken at many universities and conferences around the world on sexual health and sexual violence prevention efforts. In addition to her own YouTube Channel, she works with MTV on their YouTube channel original called “MTV Braless” and produces videos for Planned Parenthood.

“She’s going to be there to talk about the problem of rape culture and consent. She’s going to be there for questions and answers and she’s going to spend the day with students talking about those kinds of things,” says Ramini.

Each conference will be held on the Surrey campus, but there is talk of a potential live stream of Laci Green’s talk across all four campuses for those who are unable to attend in person.

All three of the conferences do include their own guest speaker. However, Laci Green was the only one mentioned by name when asked about the huge cost associated with the Peer Support Conferences. Green’s individual price tag was not specified.