News Brief: KSA appoints president, approves $35,000 in legal fees

🔊 Listen to Post

The Kwantlen Student Association held a council meeting on June 28 at noon in Birch 250 on Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus and online via Microsoft Teams. 

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

A motion was passed to appoint Jashanpreet, Sangha, Bains, Grover, and Harpal to the social justice committee. Sohal, Ranveer, Keerat, and Seera were appointed to the environmental sustainability committee. 

Kochhar was appointed chair of the external affairs committee, while Suhana was appointed chair of the governance committee.

During presentations to council, Policy and Political Affairs Coordinator Diamond Obera talked about the upcoming 2024 University of British Columbia “Student Union Development Summit” from Aug. 9 to 12. The KSA will be sending up to 15 delegates to the event, which will bring student leaders from different universities together to network and share skills to help them progress beyond their associations. The KSA approved $12,725 for the conference. 

In her report, Faculty of Arts Representative Kochhar said she had the privilege to attend the community service event held at Sri Lakshmi Narayan Mandir from June 14 to 20. 

“The beginning of this council wasn’t the smoothest, but over the period of time, we have shattered those barriers and came together to support and serve the community,” she said. 

In his report, Students of Colour Representative Ishant thanked everyone involved in the planning and execution of the event. He also announced that he was elected as the chairperson for the Alliance of BC Students after attending the ABCS Skills and Training Conference held in May. 

The KSA’s Financial Controller Rolando Navarro proposed a motion to reallocate funds from advocacy reserves to legal assistance. As per the KSA’s Regulations, “5% of the next revenue of this fund shall be transferred to the Kwantlen Students’ Legal Assistance Fund each year.” 

The KSA’s accounting department said the changes need to be made to pay outstanding bills. The motion failed to pass after Ishant recommended deferring the motion to the next meeting. 

Council also recalled their motion from the June 21 council meeting to hold weekly council meetings and canceled all the dates scheduled in that motion. The remainder of regular council meetings for the summer semester are now scheduled bi-weekly on July 12 and 26, and Aug. 16 and 30. 

Council discussed a motion to reactivate a special ad hoc committee called the Grassroots redevelopment committee, which will consist of seven councillors until March 31, 2025. 

KSA’s Advocacy Coordinator John O’Brian said, “an ad hoc committee needs to have a specific function and is supposed to be temporary to produce a specific thing like a report or a recommendation.”

Since this committee already falls under the existing mandates of the finance and operations and student life committees, there is no specific outcome for a special ad hoc committee to serve. The motion was approved. 

Ishant proposed a motion to add $30,000 to a budget to order swag for KPU students for the KSA’s welcome week event in the fall semester. The budget already had $17,000, and adding $30,000 would total the budget to $47,000. 

“The council has been talking to students, and students have indicated a lot of interest in KSA swag,” he said.  

O’Brain asked if there is a concrete plan available for review regarding where the money is going to be spent, to which Ishant said anyone interested in a breakdown of the funds can reach out to him at ishant.goyal@kusa.ca. 

In the meeting chat, Design Representative Okrah said, “I would recommend that in the future motions are not passed without plans, breakdowns and notices sent out to council members.”

The motion did not receive unanimous consent and failed to pass. The rest of the motions were deferred to the next council meeting due to an inability to get unanimous consent. 

The KSA also held an executive committee meeting for the 2024-25 term on June 28. During the meeting, Guron was appointed president. 

The committee approved various invoices in legal and professional fees to Miller Thomson LLP amounting to $35,067, while $700 was approved for the “Breaking the Silence” event, which will be held on July 3 in Grassroots Cafe to encourage discussions regarding mental health. 

The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for July 12 at noon, and the next executive meeting is scheduled for July 4 at 1:00 pm. Scheduled council meetings are currently not listed on the KSA’s website. Interested students can email info@kusa.ca to join.