KSA fires interim executive director, VP finance and operations resigns
Announcements of the position changes were made during the Sept. 15 council meeting
It was announced at the Sept. 15 KSA council meeting that Gagandeep Kaur was fired from her position as executive director and Jashandeep Singh resigned from his position as VP finance and operations. (File photo)
The Kwantlen Student Association announced they fired their interim Executive Director Gagandeep Kaur at a council meeting held on Sept. 15.
Kaur was interim executive director for just over three months after being appointed into the position following the resignation of the previous Executive Director Parveen Sehra.
The KSA’s executive director is responsible for managing employees and aspects of human resources including hiring, discharging, training, and supervising of employees in discussion with the executive committee, according to the KSA’s Regulations.
“We fired her with cause,” says Abdullah Randhawa, president and vice president university affairs. “She wasn’t working properly [after a while].”
Randhawa also says since Kaur was hired as an interim executive director, the KSA needed to find someone permanent to fill the position.
“We just found that [permanent] person, and [so] we decided to ask her to leave and break the contract with her,” Randhawa says.
Council appointed Richard Hall as the KSA’s new executive director who will be starting the position full time on Oct. 3. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the public, non-profit, and private sectors.
“Richard brings significant HR, labour relations, health and safety, risk management, and mediation experience, all of which we know is going to be a tremendous asset to the KSA as we work to rebuild stable leadership,” Randhawa wrote in an email to KSA staff and council.
On Sept. 14, VP Finance & Operations Jashandeep Singh wrote an email to the executive committee resigning from the position.
“I am unable to work full-time on Kwantlen Student Association as I am having some work priorities and I want to spend time with my family,” Singh wrote.
He also wrote it was a great experience working as a KSA executive and he learned a lot from the position. Singh will remain on the KSA council as the Cloverdale campus representative.
As the KSA doesn’t have an executive director actively working, council is unable to elect a different member into the position. Randhawa says himself and the other executives will be splitting and taking on Singh’s workload until the new executive director starts.
“We are having a vote for everything. If it is in our authority, we are approving it, but if it is not, we are holding it,” Randhawa says.
A few months ago, Randhawa told The Runner he was looking to get rid of the executive tuition benefit which the 2022-2023 executive committee installed. The benefit was unanimously approved last August by the then-executive committee to include up to $10,000 tuition coverage for each executive member per year. In March, the benefit was amended to offer reimbursement for six credits per semester per executive instead.
Randhawa says the executives have sent the proposal to remove the tuition benefit to the finance committee and governance committee and are waiting to hear back from them. He also says himself and the other executives have collected the tuition benefit for the semesters they’ve held an executive position, however Singh will not be receiving the tuition benefit for this fall semester due to his resignation.
The Runner tried to get in contact with Kaur for an interview but was unable to do so before the publishing date.
