New KSA Executives Gear Up For the Fall Semester and Federal Election

A team of newly elected KSA executives are settling into the positions they will be filling for the next year.

During a productive executive meeting on July 16, the team discussed funding for various events and initiatives, including soft launches for Peer Support Centre rebranding, an upcoming writer’s workshop, and renovations in the Grassroots Cafe.

Keeping track of the budget is the new VP of Finance and Operations Mayur Gupta.

“It’s not as difficult as I thought it would be,” Gupta says. “I just have to make the budget, record it, and look over KSA operations.”

Besides keeping the budget “properly balanced,” Gupta’s goals over the next year include introducing “new services for KPU students to make [university] more enjoyable for them.”

“We’re working on gym services, shuttle services, and games services to try to make things more affordable,” he says.

VP Student Life Dhruv Shahi has been in his position for four months and says that he is “quite comfortable” with it already.

“Mainly, I’m focused on interacting with students and having events for them,” he says.

Upcoming events that Shahi is planning include games during welcome week for the fall semester. 

“We’re going to do an Amazing Race-type of event for that,” he explains. “I’m also planning a paintballing event in early October.”

Over the next year, Shahi wants to bring student life-centric initiatives and events to all of KPU’s campuses rather than holding them all in Surrey. So far, these include a movie night in Cloverdale and undetermined events in Richmond and Langley. He plans to brainstorm for those campuses more in the fall.

Aside from organizing events for students, Shahi is also in the process of developing an updated club list with David Piraquive, the KSA President and VP External Affairs. 

“Right now, we are in the process of gathering all of the renewal forms,” says Piraquive.

“Recently we’ve had a staff turnover in the clubs portfolio, so we’re just catching that person up in the new role, and once we’re done processing that we will be updating the clubs list.”

VP University Affairs and Indigenous Students Representative Sarah Strachan says that she “finds it interesting to find out about all the different kinds of issues that students are having with the university,” so that she can help address them.

“Right now, students are having issues with library hours and gym hours and stuff like that, so I try to find out who are the people I need to speak to in order to help them,” she says.

With the federal election on the horizon, the KSA is also preparing their “Get Out the Vote” campaign. Part of the KSA’s strategy involves continuing to strengthen its relationship with the Alliance of B.C. Students, which lobbies members of the provincial government on behalf of students across the lower mainland.

“The main goal of the ABCS is to make post-secondary more accessible for the students,” says Piraquive. 

“When I mention accessibility, it includes a wide variety of issues that affect students’ educational experience, things like mental health, sexual violence, the cost of post-secondary, any number of things.”

“When we lobby together, we lobby more efficiently,” Piraquive adds.