BCIT student association creates external policy condemning KSA’s conduct

The British Columbia Institute for Technology Student Association (BCITSA) created an external policy that condemns the Kwantlen Student Association’s conduct and calls on lobbying organizations and government leaders to decline working with the KSA in the name of democracy. 

The policy declares that the BCITSA will not invite or permit the KSA to attend any events it hosts nor work with the KSA on any initiatives. It also discourages BCIT students from using their funds to attend student-led conferences or events the KSA is permitted to attend, excluding club-related events. 

The BCITSA created this policy to advance its commitment to democracy, transparency, and accountability, but also to ground the autonomy of student associations in the province, the policy’s rationale reads. 

“If student unions are unable to govern themselves appropriately, then I think there’s genuine concern that there will be efforts to undermine that autonomy through additional government regulation,” says Cora Bell, vice-president external at the BCITSA. 

“So when student associations like the KSA act the way that they act, that kind of undermines that autonomy and oversight that we don’t have quite so strictly provided to us.”

BCITSA President Jimmy Wang says there were two main factors that led the student association to create this policy: the KSA’s proposed bylaw changes and spending of student funds. 

In September, the KSA organized a special general meeting — which Kwantlen Polytechnic University cancelled the space for due to security concerns — where it was to propose sweeping bylaw changes that would restrict KPU students’ involvement in the association. As for the KSA’s spending, The Runner reported that the student association is in a $675,000 deficit, according to the association’s 2024 draft budget. 

“The KSA’s expenditures are so eye-openingly outrageous,” Wang says.

Late last summer, the KSA council went on a $20,000 two-night retreat to Kelowna that not all council members were informed of. Earlier this year, The Runner anonymously received photos of damages costing $2,500 made to a hotel room that KSA councillors stayed in during the retreat.

“When we see news articles that are talking [about] $20,000 being spent on retreats to Kelowna, and then you see thousands of dollars in fees added onto a trashed hotel room, that just doesn’t seem to reflect care towards KPU students or the money that is being taken from students’ pockets who notoriously do not have that much money,” Bell says.    

Wang says the KSA making it into local news and the Alliance of BC Students (ABCS) publicly condemning the KSA’s alleged misconduct were also driving forces behind creating the policy. 

“People that we did business with, they made offhand comments about the KSA, and then we were like, ‘Oh, wow, it’s getting really bad if it’s coming up on these people’s radars,’” he says, adding that other student associations the BCITSA has spoken with hold the same opinions about the KSA. 

Through this policy, the BCITSA hopes to set a precedent among student associations about the KSA’s “unacceptable” behaviour, Bell says, adding that student unions exist to be a voice for students. 

“Shutting those voices out, as the KSA has tried to do, is just completely contrary to that purpose and that goal. We genuinely feel that someone has to advocate for the voices of KPU students. If the KSA is not going to do that, I think that we as an organization need to set that precedent.” 

Wang and Bell say the policy also aims to get other student associations to follow in the BCITSA’s footsteps and get to a point where either KPU students decide to take action or the KSA “gets their act together.” 

“It’s important for a student association … to not stand idly by and just let things like this happen at other organizations,” Bell says. “The goal really is to make sure that [the KSA] is really listening to KPU students and really putting their best interests at heart.” 

The BCITSA council approved External Policy 12 – Kwantlen Student Association in February. The policy will be reviewed next year. 

The Runner reached out to the KSA Executive Director Timothii Ragavan, President Yashanpreet Guron, and Associate President Ishant Goyal for a comment. They did not respond before publication.