KSA Conducts Consultations for Annual Budget Planning

VP Finance & Operations hopes for more student involvement at this year’s budget plans

Each year, students and faculty are invited by the Kwantlen Student Association to learn about how the KSA’s finances should be spent. Rawan Ramaini, the KSA’s vice president of finance and operations, will be hosting this year’s consultations and hopes that Kwantlen Polytechnic University students will contribute ideas for the 2017 budget.

“All students are welcome to come. In fact, they are encouraged to come,” says Ramini.

The first phase of the budget consultations will take place in August, when KSA staff will submit their budget worksheets to the Ramini. Following that, students will have the opportunity to get involved sometime between late September and early October to have their say.

Although the turnout last year was small, Ramini is hopeful that more students will take part this year.

“The main reason I’m doing this is to answer students’ questions. I want them to understand how the budget works,” she says.

With last year’s turnout in mind, Ramini is planning to host more events across the four campuses to help encourage more students to participate and have their voices heard.

Ramini is planning to be available for two days on the Surrey campus and one day on each of the other three campuses in order to accommodate all students. The budget consultations are a Q&A-style meeting for students and faculty to come and go as they please.

To help promote more student involvement, there is even the possibility that students unable to attend the meetings in person will be able to submit questions and feedback electronically to Ramini during the consultation periods.

“I just want to encourage students to actually come out and ask all the questions that they have,” says Ramini.

Everything regarding the KSA budget is posted online and updated regularly for students to see, should they have questions or concerns regarding the way KSA finances are handled.