KSA appoints associate president, makes several changes to Regulations

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The Kwantlen Student Association held an executive committee meeting on July 25 where they appointed Students of Colour Representative Ishant Goyal as associate president. 

The associate president is responsible for assisting the president with their duties, attending all executive committee meetings, working with the committee to manage and track its performance, as well as assisting with communications and administrative executive committee tasks and planning meetings and events. 

The associate president position was first created as a volunteer position by the KSA council in December 2022. This past December, council passed a motion to give the associate president an honorarium of $5,000, which is disbursed each semester so long as the associate president has served at least seven of 12 months in office, according to the KSA’s Regulations. 

The executive committee also approved the creation of the new Kwantlen Polytechnic University Dance Club, $18,209.59 in legal fees, and $17,614 for an event at Cultus Lake Waterpark on Aug. 4. The approved funding will cover the cost of waterpark tickets, food, and transportation for 120 KPU students, who can register for the event by visiting https://kusa.ca/cultus-lake-water-park-trip/. 

The KSA held a council meeting on July 26 at 1:00 pm in Birch 250 on KPU’s Surrey campus and online via Microsoft Teams. 

Council members Abhijeet Singh, Arnav Grover, Bhoomika Seera, Dishika Gour, Ishant, Jashanpreet Singh Sekhon, Jaskaran Sohal, Jasmine Kaur Kochhar, Keerat Goyal, Lesli Sangha, Nishant Kapoor, Nitin Aggarwal, Ranveer Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Simranjot Sekhon, Suhana Gill, Yugveer Gill, and Yuvraj Bains were in attendance for the meeting. Harpal Singh, Paramvir Singh Johal, and Yashanpreet Guron were absent. 

Speaker of Council Amrinder Sandhu was absent. Council voted to appoint Ishant as acting speaker for the duration of the meeting. 

In her report, Simranjot said that she has been analyzing the budget, reviewing operating expenses, and working on honorariums to “optimize [the KSA’s] financial resources.” She further added that the “Ghazal Night” and “KPU’s Got Talent” events were successful.

“It was truly rewarding to witness the enthusiastic participation of our student community, and this success was a testament to the collaborative efforts of our council members,” she wrote. 

Council proposed a motion for the environmental sustainability committee to make recommendations to council on matters relating to environmental sustainability, and on changes, developments, expansions, and issues regarding student services. The motion also allows the committee to select delegates for any external workshops or conferences related to environmental sustainability. The motion was passed. 

Council also approved a motion for the social justice and equity committee to make recommendations to council about partnering with external social justice organizations and making recommendations on policies about social justice and equity issues. The motion also allowed the committee to select delegates for external workshops. 

A motion was proposed to include a mandate in the Regulations for the Grassroots redevelopment committee, a special ad hoc committee that reactivated during a council meeting on June 28. The motion passed. 

As per the motion, the Grassroots redevelopment committee should make recommendations to “enhance and modernize the Grassroots Café and Lounge to better serve the KPU student community.”

The committee can also advise council on changes, developments, expansions, and other issues regarding services provided by the café. 

Council also approved a motion to amend the regulations to change the “Appointments Committee” to “Internal Committee” to be consistent with the bylaws. 

A motion was proposed for council to elect the members of the internal committee “regardless of outcome of the executive committee elections,” following the election of the executive committee. 

KSA Records Coordinator and Archivist Kari Michaels asked whether the governance committee has “considered the implications of allowing committees to be constituted without having a successful executive committee election, given the standing committee is largely comprised of the executive committee portfolio.”

Ishant said the motion “already came through the legal counsel” of the KSA. 

Policy and Political Affairs Coordinator Diamond Obera said the motion could be “potentially problematic” since the committees are set up to monitor the vice-president positions. The motion was deferred to the next meeting. 

A motion was proposed to amend the Regulations to include that all candidates contesting for the KSA’s general elections should be in good academic standing with KPU and in good standing with the KSA. The motion was approved. 

A motion was proposed to ensure that the candidates contesting for constituency representative positions must self-identify as members of said constituency “by indicating their self-identification on the nomination form.”

The amended Regulations would require the mature students representative to be a mature student who is 25 years of age or older during the time of nomination, the international student representative to be a current international student with a valid study permit, and the students of colour representative to identify as a student of colour. 

The students with disabilities representative must identify as a student with disabilities and be registered with KPU Accessibility Services, the Indigenous students representative must identify as an Indigenous student, the women’s representative must identify as a woman, and the queer students representative must identify as a member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

“Making changes generally to the Regulations should warrant some explanation as to why the changes are being made,” Obera said.

The KSA staff raised concerns over whether these changes were recommended by the chief returning officer, who is responsible for conducting elections in a fair and impartial manner, as per the KSA’s Regulations. The legitimacy of these requirements were also questioned. 

“Self-identification is a typical process, verifying someone’s identity becomes obviously problematic as has been noted,” Michaels wrote in the meeting chat. 

“​​I just want to reiterate to council this change in the election procedures, which governs eligibility to run, particularly for historically marginalized groups within society, adds restrictions to students’ eligibility to run for these positions,” Michaels said. 

The motion was carried. 

Several other motions regarding campaigning and electoral procedures were passed. 

The meeting ended at 2:31 pm. All other motions on the agenda were deferred to the next meeting.