What Can a KSA Councilor Accomplish?

Skytrain lines and the return of varsity sports are not reasonable election promises, KSA President argues

Some students vying for Kwantlen Student Association council seats have made some bold claims. Neelham Dhanda, who’s running for arts representative, technically didn’t promise to reduce parking fees, but in an interview said “I believe that when students pay for parking, it’s a little expensive. You pay five dollars for the whole day—I feel like that’s a little too much. I feel like it should be at least two dollars for a whole day, then that way students wouldn’t have to worry and stress.”

“One of the roles of the KSA is to advocate on behalf of students at the university, we have no control over parking fees. However, it’s definitely one of the things we talk to [the] university about,” says Alex McGowan, VP External of the KSA, and three-term council member.

Daniel Hurt, who’s running for art representative against two other candidates, has said that he would work towards making textbooks cheaper. In a previous interview, he said that he “can get them to have textbook prices go down, and that’s something I will guarantee.”

“Professors choose textbooks that they want, then they tell the bookstore what they want ordered, and they set a price for that,” says Hurt. While Hurt is aware of the push for open-textbooks, he says that he wants to get cheaper textbooks overall, “via collective bargaining for textbooks that are not open-source; we already do something similar for our student health plan. Students all pay in through their fees, or can choose to opt out and buy elsewhere (work-based health care plan/buying from the bookstore or aftermarket).”

“We have no say over how much textbooks cost, the publishers have 100 per cent say over it,” says Tanvir Singh, VP Services and two-term council member. “That’s not necessarily something student associations do: lobby textbook companies.”

Singh says that textbook companies are larger than universities, and taking a few thousand textbook sales away from a publisher won’t hurt their margins. On Sept. 30, KSA council passed a resolution to encourage the university to adopt open-education resources.

“At the end of the day, it’s unrealistic to expect a single student union to go and bulk-buy textbooks as a way to try to bring down costs,” says McGowan.

Hurt also wants to get a Skytrain line built out to the Surrey campus. “If we can possibly make calls to the planning department and see what they would say, it’s something we should push for in the long term,” says Hurt. “If we get residences on campus, then it’s logical that it would be a central point for people to use transit. In the future, hopefully, we can get city hall to do that.”

“A Skytrain is not realistic, it’s not living in the real world,” says McGowan. “Transit is something we spend a good amount of time working for […], the way transit is planned in the Lower Mainland is in 10 and 30-year plans. Obviously the best possible transit is what we’re advocating for. The feasible option that we’re looking at, that we’d like to get for students is a b-line down Scott road and 72 Ave.”

Hurt expressed a desire to see housing built on campus. In an email to The Runner, Hurt wrote “Ideally I want 50-storey towers around Surrey Campus, 20 story blocks around Richmond Campus to match those immediately adjacent across the street.” However, in the phone interview on Oct. 21, he didn’t have an estimate to how much the buildings would cost. Hurt also wasn’t aware of how much money the KSA has access to, though asserted that he’d know by the time he gets to office. The KSA’s financial statements suggest an expected 2016 revenue of $1,494,002, according to the latest unaudited financial statement.

Hurt proposes that they could be partially paid for by making the upper floors into luxury units and leasing them on 10 year contracts, giving the project some start-up capital. Though he acknowledges that it could be “a long shot.”

“A 50-storey building is probably… $100 or $150 million project. That is definitely not something the student association could fund ever,” says McGowan. “We’re about to build a student union building—$15 million—it has taken us many years to build up the down-payment on that, and it’s a very large loan for us to take out. It’s perfectly within our means to do that, but that’s a 2-3 storey building.”

McGowan, in working with the KSA and the Association of B.C. Students, is currently working with the university to do a survey on what students need, and therefore what would be realistic to lobby for at the provincial level.

Hurt also wants to bring back varsity sports, though the original decision to cut it was a KPU decision, not a KSA one. McGowan has commented that it’s not financially reasonable for the KSA to make such an attempt, though says that they could advocate for it with the university, if council votes in favour.

Though it’s normal for political candidates to make claims to get elected, whether it be a Skytrain line or a border wall, it might also be in their best interest to make reasonable promises, McGowan says.

“What I would want in a student candidate for this sort of position… They’re not necessarily going to be super knowledgable, we don’t necessarily expect them to know a whole lot about the KSA, KPU, what’s currently being done, [but] doing their homework is really important.”

McGowan explains further that he has offered help to all students who wish to run for council seats, stating that through speaking to him first, they might be able to better format their campaigns. Some have taken him up on the offer, he says.

“The university recognizes us as the representatives of the largest stakeholders at the university, the students, and always keep us in with consultations and lets us collaborate with them,” says Singh. “Once again, any of these candidates can come to us and learn what the issues are, and what’s realistic and not, we’re willing to explain things. All we ask is that people have a realistic view.”