News brief: KSA makes multiple changes to its regulations
The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 28 at 11:00 am. (File photo)
The Kwantlen Student Association approved multiple changes to its regulations, which are the operational rules of the organization, during a council meeting on Feb. 14.
The specific changes were not presented during the meeting nor attached to the meeting’s agenda, but “include clarifying terms, adding new defined terms, and removing defined terms,” Associate President Ishant Goyal said.
Some changes include giving council members honorariums, which are $100 per meeting, if they are present for half of the meeting, permitting council meeting guests to only ask questions during the question period, and removing requirements for the executive committee to be elected during a specific time, Goyal said, which was previously stipulated to take place during the council’s first meeting on or after April 1.
Other changes concern access to KSA spaces, how committee members will be appointed, and who will be “retained for training,” Goyal said, adding condensing the KSA’s mission, vision, and values statements and clarifying council members’ duties and the rules around conflict of interest are also among the changes.
“There is one for the budget approval for the finance and operations committees, there is one section for the contracts, there is also one for the executive director’s day-to-day operations,” Goyal said.
“The next one is for executive committee members as to how much they should be working …. There is one for reductions or suspensions made to honorariums for elected officials.”
Clarifying the associate president’s duties and appointment process, allowing standing committee and special committee meetings to have in-camera, or private, sessions, limiting these meetings to one hour, and changing the notice of these meetings from two days to 24 hours are also among the approved changes.
The KSA’s legal counsel Miller Thomson LLP recommended these regulation changes because the “regulations haven’t been updated in a long time, so they have to be updated,” Goyal said.
The last time the KSA updated its regulations was during a council meeting on Dec. 20, 2024 where it approved 14 changes regarding election rules.
“I require more time to properly understand the impact of all these changes that are presented today, as I was not included in the discussions,” Students with Disabilities Representative Lesli Sangha wrote in the meeting’s Microsoft Teams chat while announcing she abstained from voting on the regulations changes.
During the meeting, The Runner asked for a list of the specific regulation changes. No one answered, and The Runner did not receive the list before publication.
The KSA council also approved to replace Langley Campus Representative Jashanpreet Singh Sekhon on six standing committees. Faculty of Arts Representative Jasmine Kaur Kochhar said the reason for doing so is because Sekhon’s tenure has ended. Sekhon remains in his representative position on the council.
Also on the meeting’s agenda was a deferred motion to appoint Amandeep Sahi as an assistant chief returning officer (CRO). The motion was deferred indefinitely.
The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 28 at 11:00 am. Interested students can email info@kusa.ca to join the meeting.
