Life in KPIRGatory

The Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group searching for a permanent home

After three years of sharing a space with the Kwantlen Pride Collective, KPIRG has become officially homeless.

The group’s exodus began in early July, when Kwantlen Polytechnic University started renovating the Birch building on the Surrey campus. However, unlike their roommates at Pride, KPIRG was not given a private work space to operate out of during the renovations.

In response, they have decided to rent out classrooms, use the Sociology pod when possible, and spend their Wednesdays petitioning for a long-term space in the courtyard, just minutes away from the room they once called home.

“Since we were founded in 2013, we haven’t really had a good, permanent space as a base for volunteers and students to come by with their ideas, for those that are interested in grants and the other services and workshops and things that we provide,” says Lincey Amora, KPIRG Director of Campus Life.

Amora also claims that KPIRG would be open to paying rent for a long-term space on-campus, which makes sense, considering the size of their budget. In 2015, the research group had $44,556 excess of revenue after paying for advertising, capital assets, directors’ compensation, events, insurance, interest and bank charges, office and professional expenses, salaries and benefits, phone bills, travel and parking.

The organization’s Administrative & Resource Coordinator, Richard Hosein, affirms that the group has been working towards getting their own space since day one, but after “getting a little bit of runaround from the university,” they decided to lobby the KSA exclusively. In preparation for the Birch renovations, KPIRG submitted what Hosein calls “a comprehensive space proposal document” to the student association, but received no office in the final building plans.

“We’ve been getting promises from the KSA on getting space; nothing legally binding, as far as I know, but mostly verbal confirmation that we’d be getting it when Birch is renovated,” he says. “We were under the impression that we were getting space when, in fact, the reality is that we’re not.”

KSA President Alex McGowan challenges that notion, saying that KPIRG “have yet to reach out to us to talk about their space needs,” other than submitting their space proposal during the consultation period.

He also explains why Pride Kwantlen was given space in the new plans for Birch, but KPIRG was not.

“Ultimately, the decision that was made is that KPIRG is an autonomous society; they collect their own fees, and clubs don’t collect their own fees. Our constituency groups don’t have their own money to spend, whereas KPIRG does. Of all the groups that we’re trying to find space for, KPIRG is the most able to find space for itself elsewhere.”

He mentions the “short period of time” that the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society—the organization that publishes The Runner—spent with their work space off-campus as an acceptable possibility for KPIRG.

Since the Birch plans were released, the research group has pinned posters with the phrase #PIRGatory printed on them all over the campus, as an attempt to raise awareness for their cause. The desired outcome of the posters is to drive traffic to the signing of their petition—available in the Surrey courtyard Wednesdays and online at kpirg.ca—calling on KPU to “provide KPIRG with a space to serve its 20,000 students.”

Hosein describes the measures they’re currently taking as “just part of the bigger scheme of things,” and discloses that KPIRG plans to “be actively lobbying the university’s administration” sometime in the near future. He claims that the society is determined to get the space that they feel is “respectable and dignified,” and their primary reason for that dedication is security.

“We have paid staff members, we have legal documents, financial documents, that need to be under lock and key just like any other organization. Any other business or nonprofit out there has safe, lockable, secure space for its confidential and operational documents. We’re simply asking for the same,” he explains.

Currently KPIRG’s legal and financial documents are sitting in his basement—a fact which he believes keeps KPIRG from completely fulfilling their mandate.

“It comes down to accountability with students’ money. Really, we have a mandate that’s specific. We’re unable to fulfill it because we just don’t have the space.”

Part of their responsibility is giving students access to the resources that they pay for, but because they don’t currently have a place to put those resources—such as a library full of “books, magazines, other types of media”—they live in a storage locker.

McGowan believes that, in order to resolve the conflict, “it’s important that KPIRG comes to the table and meets with [The KSA about] their needs.”

“We know that KPU has asked us to be the point of contact when it comes to talks between KPIRG and KPU, and for us to have those conversations, we need KPIRG to come to us, otherwise we won’t be in a position to represent their issues.”

Until they are situated in a permanent home, KPIRG plans to continue petitioning every Wednesday from 10:00am until 3:50pm in the Surrey courtyard.