KSA council elects internal committee, discusses appointment of speaker
Council moved forward with electing its internal committee before its executive after concerns about the legality of such were put to rest
The next KSA council meeting will take place on June 7 at 12:00 pm. (File photo)
The Kwantlen Student Association held a council meeting on May 17 at 12:00 pm in Birch 250 on Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus and online via Microsoft Teams. All council members were in attendance either online or in-person.
Students of Colour Representative Ishant Goyal expressed concerns about the validity of Speaker of Council Amrinder Sandhu’s appointment at the March 6 council meeting as the minutes for this meeting are unavailable. Appointing a speaker was item five on this meeting’s agenda, which Sandhu had called to order before his appointment.
“The issues Ishant brought up were minor procedural issues not related to the votes that made me a speaker,” Sandhu said.
KSA Advocacy Coordinator John O’Brian said they are working on reconstructing the meeting minutes to resolve the matter.
“I can confirm that there is an audio recording of a motion [to appoint the speaker] being passed at that meeting,” O’Brian said.
A motion to appoint the executive and internal committees was put forward. The executive committee elections took place on April 19, and council has failed to approve the election results at every council meeting since then. After a vote, the executive committee election results failed to pass for the fourth time.
They then moved on to the internal committee elections. Students with Disabilities Representative Lesli Sangha proposed a motion to “postpone [the elections] to the next meeting, due to an issue at hand that could impact the composition of the council and therefore the number of eligible voters.”
Sangha asked for a two-week grace period to “get clarity from [their] legal counsel.” Policy and Political Affairs Coordinator Diamond Obera said according to the KSA’s legal counsel, the association can move forward with the elections and “potentially legally not be held accountable.”
“We have to have a successful executive committee election before the internal [election] simply because of a potential issue down the road of council members getting appointed to committees and then having to resign,” Obera said.
The motion to appoint the internal committee was put to a vote and passed.
Council members Abhijeet Singh, Arnav Grover, Keerat Goyal, Jashanpreet Singh Sekhon, Yuvraj Bains, were nominated by Jasmine Kaur Kochhar, while Nitin Aggarwal nominated Simranjot Sekhon, Bhoomika Seera, Nishant Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, and Dishika Gour.
After council casted their ballots, the candidates elected for the internal committee were Abhibjeet, Grover, Jashanpreet, Simranjot, and Seera.
Paul Finch from the BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) gave a presentation to council. Finch spoke about the importance of student governments and advised council to learn the systemic skills and talent to measure decisions made in governance.
Obera talked about an upcoming skills and training Alliance of BC Students (ABCS) conference on May 25 and 26 at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus. The conference is an opportunity for council members to learn campaigning skills, advocacy and lobbying, acquire skills they need to be successful, and connect with other student leaders.
Obera recommended Kochhar, Suhana Gill, Sangha, and Goyal be sent as delegates to the conference in addition to two other council members since an external committee has yet to be appointed. $1,250 was approved to attend the conference.
Director of Communications at ABCS Hassan Merali presented next and talked about advocacy and lobbying efforts by the alliance, resulting policy changes, and the benefits of being a member. The KSA, UBC Graduate Student Society, Capilano Students Union, and Royal Roads University Student Association are members of the alliance.
The cost of membership for the KSA amounts to $19,212.48. Some membership benefits include collaboration with other student associations, training and support for lobbying, free registration to events, and running additional campaigns.
The council also approved $5,000 for a trip to Victoria they are planning with KPU international, and $1,800 for the cricket club to participate in the British Columbia Mainland Cricket League.
The meeting adjourned at 4:11 pm. The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for June 7 at 12:00 pm. Interested students can email info@kusa.ca to join.
