KSA council purchases 20 pairs of AirPods for $7,369

🔊 Listen to Post

Recently, The Runner received an anonymous tip that the Kwantlen Student Association purchased AirPods for the council. 

At a council meeting last December, the KSA council approved a motion to purchase 20 units of Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) during an in-camera session. The total cost of the equipment totalled $7,369.60 with each pair costing $368.48 including sales tax. 

The purchase was approved by management since most members use their cell phones to attend meetings online, wrote KSA Financial Controller Rolando Navarro in an email statement to The Runner. The order for the AirPods was placed on Jan. 11. The expense was charged to BLI 5472 (orientation and development).

Navarro wrote the existing council will get to keep their AirPods for hygienic reasons, since they would have been used many times by the time their term is over.  

Executive members get laptops during their tenure, which they have to return by March 31, says Jasmine Kaur Kochhar, vice-president external affairs for the KSA. Council decided they should all get to keep something as a token of their time spent on council and chose AirPods, she says.  

“When we [got] a new [executive director], [we were] finally stable, [and] had all the other things sorted out, this was something which came into consideration,” Kochhar says. 

However, she is not sure if the new council, which will start their term on April 1, will have access to the AirPods or get a new pair. The decision was made in-camera after it was moved by one of the council members.

Kochhar says the purchase is practical as it helps members during council and executive meetings to have confidential discussions, since many members join the meetings online via Microsoft Teams. She says it’s risky for members to have their phone on speaker mode during certain motions that shouldn’t leave the KSA office. 

Kochhar also says the meetings are held online to work around the schedules of those who are not able to attend meetings in-person. She says members often have classes during the designated council meeting time on Fridays. 

“How much can you sacrifice?” Kochhar says. “Even if you’re a council member or an executive, academics should be an utmost priority.” 

She also says it’s better for council members to attend meetings in-person if they have spare time to “respect the dignity of the room,” and that it also helps speed up the decision making process. 

Since most members on council are Apple users, Kochhar says settling on Apple was a good option, and that the next council should get AirPods as well if it would help contribute to their work, privacy, and devoting time to the KSA apart from their studies. 

Every student organization should adhere to privacy, she adds. 

“[Even if] a little bit of information [goes] left or right, it does not bode well. I’ve seen that in the last one year,” Kochhar says. 

The purchases were not reflected in the agenda and minutes for council or executive meetings since they fall under the spending authority of the Executive Director and/or Senior Management. 

“Fund disbursements for Budget line items that are under Council’s and/or the Executive Committee’s spending authority will be recorded in the minutes through motions to approve payments,” Navarro wrote.