News Brief: CASA and Student Support present at KSA council meeting, committees give their reports
The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 15 at 11:00 am in a hybrid format. (File photo)
The Kwantlen Student Association held their last council meeting for the summer on Aug. 18 at 11:00 am in a hybrid format.
Council members Asad Husain, Jashanpreet Singh Maan, Jashandeep Singh, Abdullah Randhawa, Gurtejpreet Kaur Kaliyan, Upeksha Gunatilake, Gurnoor Kaur, Nitin Aggarwal, Amandeep Brar, Amitoj Singh, Manraj Grewal, Taranpreet Singh, Akashdeep Sidhu, and Jaspreet Shokar were in attendance. Destiny Lang, Jasmine Kaur Kochhar, Yugveer Gill, Jobanpreet Singh, Jashanpreet Singh Maan, Mehakdeep Singh, and Akashdeep Singh were unable to attend.
After a land acknowledgement, Wasiimah Joomun, the interim executive director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), gave a presentation to council about the organization. CASA is a non-profit organization who represents Canada’s post-secondary students, along with undergraduate, graduate, and polytechnic associations, advocating on behalf of these parties to the federal government. CASA also aims to achieve an accessible, affordable, and quality post-secondary education system.
The KSA is currently a CASA member, and Kochhar is the primary delegate, meaning when she attends CASA conferences, she represents students at a national level. CASA membership fees depend on the amount of students the post-secondary institution represents, which Joomun says is around $43,000 for the KSA, or $3.76 per Kwantlen Polytechnic University student.
Vaishali Vinayak from Student Support, an organization that aims to provide students with affordable access to well-being and academic resources, also gave a presentation to council about their services. Student Support currently has five service partners, Udemy, which allows students to learn new skills, ProWritingAid, which provides writing support, exercise platform Aaptiv, Nimbus Learning, which connects students with their university’s tutors and mentors, and Calm, a mindfulness app.
Vinayak said Student Support offers a 98 per cent discount on these services, which would equal between $21 to $29 per semester with the summer semester being free for KPU students, depending on the chosen service bundle.
Randhawa said council will have a look at the different services and bundles and get back to Student Support with a decision.
Chairs from council committees also gave their reports. Taranpreet said the external affairs committee has been planning an information event in the fall for students to learn about WorkSafeBC, student housing, and housing in the province. Event details are still to come.
Asad Husain from the Grassroots redevelopment committee says they are planning to host bi-weekly events at the cafe to increase student engagement on campus. They’re also working to implement an employee reward program at Grassroots to motivate and show appreciation for employees.
Brar presented the student life committee’s report. She said the Cultus Lake Waterpark trip on July 30 was successful, as was the Melody Night which took place on Aug. 2 in the Cedar building’s Conference Center at the Surrey campus. Brar said the committee is looking forward to organizing more events for the fall semester.
The environmental sustainability, finance, internal, governance, social justice and equity, and the university affairs committees have not met since the last council meeting on July 28 and were unable to present a report.
The meeting adjourned at 12:11 pm. The next council meeting is scheduled to take place on Sept. 15 at 11:00 am in a hybrid format. Students can email info@kusa.ca to join the meeting.
