KSA holds AGM without quorum, students raise concerns with association’s conduct

The Kwantlen Student Association held its annual general meeting (AGM) on March 28 at 10:00 am in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey Conference Centre, marking the end of the 2024-25 KSA council’s term. 

The KSA’s 2024-25 vice-president university affairs Abhijeet Singh, vice-president external affairs Paramvir Singh, vice-president finance and operations Simranjot Sekhon, and associate president Ishant Goyal attended the meeting. KSA president and vice-president student life Yashanpreet Guron could not attend the AGM due to a “family emergency,” Goyal said.

In order for the meeting to proceed according to its agenda, there must be a quorum of at least 60 KPU students present, as stated in the KSA’s bylaws. The AGM’s attendance did not reach this threshold, and therefore the KSA could only discuss its audited financial statements, present its executive committee’s report, and introduce its 2025-26 student representatives. 

Items on the agenda that were not presented or discussed due to the lack of quorum included a resolution for the KSA to waive all fees — with the exception of the U-Pass and extended health and dental plan fees — for KPU students who are members of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt, and Kwikwetlem First Nations. This resolution was also on last year’s KSA AGM agenda, but was not presented due to the meeting ending early. 

After a land acknowledgment and round of introductions, Speaker of Council Sukhdeep Singh started the AGM with the KSA’s audited financial statements, which were presented by the KSA’s external and independent auditors, Tompkins Wozny LLP.

“The financial position of the association improved as compared to last year,” said Gary Wozny, auditor for Tompkins Wozny.

According to the audited financial statements, the KSA’s 2024 expenses totalled about $8.6 million, which is an increase from the previous year’s $7.2 million.

The student association received $686,483 in fees from KPU in 2024. The association’s total liabilities and fund balances amounted to $24,447,133 in 2024, compared to $23,164,320 in 2023 — an increase of about $1.3 million.

On behalf of the KSA, KPU collected $198,332 in fees for the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) — an amount that was not recorded as revenues nor expenses in the association’s accounts, the report noted.

The association spent $355,767 on executive and representative stipends for council members — an increase of about $80,500 from 2023. In 2024, the vice-president external affairs made $52,838, the vice-president finance and operations made $51,882, the vice-president student life made $55,638, and the vice-president university affairs made $55,006.

Professional expenses totalled $69,525 for “services provided by a former Council member,” the financial statements read. The KSA had no such expenses the previous year.

A former council member made a claim against the KSA for “breach of contract and privacy,” which was settled for $42,750. The KSA executive committee refused to provide details about the settlement at the AGM.

“We have instructions [from] our legal counsel that no details can be revealed,” Goyal said. “If anything is revealed from the KSA standpoint, it will expose the KSA to more liability.”

An amount of $13,000 was also paid to a company owned by a former council member for the purchase of T-shirts.

A former employee of the KSA also made a claim against the association for a ”dismissal grievance.” The claim is currently “indeterminable” and any potential losses are unknown, according to the financial statements. 

The student association paid $831,680 in wages, subcontractors, and benefit expenses to eight employees in 2024 — an increase of $580,621 from 2023, in which three employees were paid.

Professional expenses from a legal contractor, which were $91,640 in 2023, amounted to $333,775 in 2024 — an increase of $242,135.

KSA Executive Director Timothii Ragavan attributed the increase to the association’s “legal and professional development” by working on updating its bylaws and regulations throughout the year.

The KSA’s orientation, development, and retreat expenses amounted to $135,590, which the association only spent $10,017 towards in 2023.

Students at the meeting expressed concerns about this increase.

Goyal said a lot of the orientation expenses went towards training the council about new and readopted policies the KSA has implemented.

The amount spent on KSA-led events jumped from $41,774 in 2023 to $204,193 last year.

“The KSA has come off the COVID phase,” Goyal said. “The KSA has been hearing a lot from its members, [who] have asked the council to do a lot of events because while they enjoy the academic life on campus, they also want to have a lot of events.”

He added that some of the association’s most significant events and activities hosted last year were the New Year’s Bash, which the KSA spent $82,000 on, Christmas gift baskets worth almost $100,000, as well as the grocery support program.

The student union also spent $80,967 on advertising and related expenses in 2024 compared to $47,469 in 2023. A total of $82,128 was spent on campaigning and conferences in 2024 in comparison to $149,388 in the year prior.

Orientation for new students and welcome week events hosted by the KSA in 2024 amounted to $46,293 and $45,620 respectively. The student association spent a combined $30,727 on both events in 2023.  

Grassroots Cafe, which is owned and operated by the KSA, had a gross profit of $105,409 in 2024 and $127,445 in 2023. The cafe’s operations amounted to a loss of $222,403 in 2024 and $229,075 in 2023.

Students voted in favour of reappointing Tompkins Wozny LLP as the KSA’s financial auditors for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Sukhdeep said according to the KSA’s regulations, the appointment of auditors can go ahead even in the absence of a quorum, adding that he will confirm this with the student association’s legal counsel, Miller Thompson LLP, after the meeting. Legal confirmation was still in progress at the time of publication. 

Goyal then presented a joint report on behalf of the KSA executive committee.

At last year’s AGM, members of the KSA’s previous executive committee presented individual reports. Goyal said the committee decided to share a joint report because it is taking a more “collaborative approach.”

“Presenting the executive committee joint report is not even on the business of the AGM,” Goyal said. “This is something that’s additional and out of the way. So if people have [presented individual reports] in the past, that’s not pertaining to the business of the AGM.”

In his presentation of the joint report, Goyal said the KSA council “went beyond and above” this past year and listed various on and off-campus events the association hosted, including its Diwali celebration, Nagar Kirtan, Ghazal Night, KPU Got Talent, welcome weeks, and Nightmare Maze at Maan Farms. The report noted the KSA held more than 35 events, attracting over 8,000 attendees.

Goyal also listed various KSA initiatives in his presentation, including its distribution of Diwali dry fruit boxes and complementary meals offered at Grassroots Cafe late last year, among others.

The report also includes external student advocacy work the KSA has done, including attending CFS conferences, participating in the Alliance of BC Students (ABCS) — which the student union ended its membership with this past fall — and engaging with MLAs, such as Elenore Sturko of South Surrey in March. The report also noted that 17 new student clubs have been created this past year.

“This year … we have tried our best, but we have been portrayed in the way [that’s] not supposed to be portrayed,” Goyal said towards the end of his presentation. “I’m going to make things clear, we have been portrayed in a way that doesn’t reflect the true picture or reflection of ourselves.”

Following the presentation, students asked questions to the executive committee. Student Sheena Dela Torre brought up concerns about the diversity of events put on by the association and grocery items included in the KSA’s food hamper program.

“How would I use a five kilos pack of chickpeas? I don’t know how to cook, so I don’t know how to use it,” Dela Torre said. “I enjoy some of the Indian foods, but [with] the grocery items, most of the items cannot be used. If you can consider [this], that would be more useful to everybody.”

Goyal said the association will take her feedback, adding there have been challenges surrounding the logistics of transporting perishable and non-perishible foods. He also said KSA events are open to everyone.

KPU student Hugh Graham raised concerns about the KSA council’s trip to Kelowna over the 2024 Labour Day weekend.

“Was it for the school at all?” Graham asked. “Non-KPU students attended it. It seems to me it was just a vacation to yourselves, but using $20,000 out of our money. And so I’m curious how that benefits any student beyond yourselves.”

Goyal said the trip wasn’t just a retreat but a strategic planning one that the council attended for training, and previous retreats like this have had budget items included for excursions.

“The students we are talking about that have gone along, those were members at large. So we are looking at the communities for the KSA,” Goyal said.

KSA Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Gurinder Singh Gaddu then welcomed the new KSA council to the front of the conference centre to sign the oath of office. KPU students voted in the KSA general elections on March 10 and 11. According to the initial vote count, only 6.1 per cent of the student population voted, which is less than last year’s turnout of 6.9 per cent. 

The Surrey campus representative seat is now held by Prabjot Singh Rana, while the Richmond campus representative is Akashdeep Singh and the Langley campus representative is Prabhnoor Singh. The new Cloverdale campus representative is Jobanpreet Singh and the Civic Plaza campus representative is Shawinderdeep Singh.

The student union’s 2024-25 vice-president external affairs Paramvir Singh was re-elected and now holds the international students representative seat, and Harpal Singh, a former faculty of business representative in the KSA’s 2024-25 council, is the new students of colour representative. Ashutosh Dhingra is the new mature students representative.

The next queer students representative is an individual who campaigned under the name James. During the new council’s first meeting on April 2, an attendee in the Microsoft Teams meeting under the username of Yuvraj Bains identified themselves as James. Bains was a faculty of business representative on the 2024-25 council. James was not present at the AGM to sign the oath of office.

The KSA’s 2024-25 faculty of science and horticulture representative Bhoomika Seera was re-elected to the council, this time serving as students with disabilities representative. Manmeet Kaur is the latest women’s representative.

Jagjivan Sran, Gurparv Singh, and Amanpreet Singh are the three faculty of arts representatives, and Prabhleen Kaur and Rohit Uppal are the two faculty of science and horticulture representatives.

The five faculty of business representatives are Goyal, Gurdit Singh, Aditya Kapoor, Tejas Pathania, and Mohit Kumar. Goyal, the KSA’s 2024-25 students of colour representative, received the least amount of votes in the initial count out of the eight business representative candidates in the general election, but the KSA changed its election rules in December to prioritize third and later-year students for two of the business representative seats.

Harmanjot Grewal is the next faculty of health representative. 

After the new council was introduced, Sukhdeep called to end the meeting as the KSA could not proceed with other items on the agenda due to the lack of quorum. This included ending the meeting without a question-and-answer period, which students said they were promised before the meeting started. 

Graham raised concerns about the misconduct allegations the KSA has been facing, citing the council’s Kelowna retreat, the September special general meeting’s proposed bylaw changes — which would have limited student involvement in the union and restricted access to council meetings — student outreach, and spending on events. 

“I don’t understand why there is such a drastic increase. What special events are being held to justify such an extraordinary increase?” he asked. “The only event I really heard of last year was the New Year’s Bash …. Any student I’ve asked at the Richmond campus has never heard of that event.” 

Graham asked about the KSA spending almost $100,000 on Christmas gift baskets and said he didn’t hear anything about them on the Richmond campus nor knows anyone who did. 

Goyal said the gift baskets were handed out at all KPU campuses, except Civic Plaza, and 90 baskets were distributed at the Richmond campus within an hour and a half. He also said the KSA’s main form of communication with students is through its website and Instagram page, adding the student union is open to receive feedback on these processes.  

Graham also brought up the external policy the British Columbia Institute for Technology Student Association (BCITSA) created, which condemns the KSA’s conduct. 

Goyal said the policy is a “political gimmick” because the BCITSA’s interim co-executive director is Sameer Ismail, who served as the KSA’s previous CRO until council voted to dismiss him during an in-camera session. These are private discussions reserved for legal and human resource matters, the purchase or sale of property, and funds related directly to such, according to the KSA’s bylaws. 

In an interview with The Runner, BCITSA President Jimmy Wang and Vice-President External Cora Bell said their advocacy and policy committee were responsible for creating the policy after learning about the KSA’s proposed bylaw changes and spending of student funds. 

“The former council should be deeply embarrassed for tarnishing the reputation of our university, and we expect better conduct moving forward,” Graham said. 

“Please note that you are under scrutiny by concerned students, and we will not accept any abuses of power going forward. We expect our funds to be spent appropriately and for the benefit of all students, not a select few.” 

Ragavan said he noted down a lot of the topics discussed at the meeting and hopes to have a conversation with the incoming council about the concerns students raised. 

The AGM officially adjourned at 12:32 pm. To learn more about the KSA, visit www.kusa.ca.