News Brief: KSA discusses possible referendum to increase fees for the student health and dental plan

The Kwantlen Student Association discussed increasing student fees for the Gallivan student health and wellness plan during a council meeting on June 25.

Vice-President Student Life Ishant Goyal said he has had meetings with the health provider to hold a referendum either this fall or early next year to increase fees for the health and dental plan in light of a rise in student claims.

“We have also been looking into any other possibilities that we may have towards this deficit that we’re going to be facing through the health and dental plan,” Executive Director Timothii Ragavan said in his report.

Ragavan added the number of students who enrolled for the health and dental plan from March 2024 to 2025 has dropped by 1,000.

Goyal discussed the student association’s movie screening of Sardaar Ji 3, which it held at Landmark Cinemas in Guildford on June 30. He also thanked students for attending the KSA’s Sukhmani Sahib Path on June 24 at the Surrey campus.

“I am also in meeting with the coordinators to see how student life could be enhanced on campus and how the KSA could enhance the benefits and student life through providing services.”

The KSA is also planning to hold the Garden of Gratitude — KSA’s Club Appreciation Event on July 9 at the Surrey Conference Centre to celebrate the contributions of KPU club executives and student leaders.

Goyal said the KSA is working on revamping club policies to make for a “more even” and “formal process.”

The association is also going to start interviewing students for testimonials as a way of obtaining feedback on its process, he said.

The KSA also held executive committee meetings on June 18 and 26. 

During the June 18 meeting, KSA President Paramvir Singh said the student association held a successful event at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE). Goyal added the event had an attendance of 120 students.

He said the Hindu Pooja and Sundar Kaand Recital event the association held on June 17 was also a success.

The executives approved $6,209.41 for food and swag at the Sundar Kaand Recital. A total of $550 was approved for the Accounting Students of Kwantlen’s Ice-Cream Social.

The KSA was also planning to fund student assistant research projects for Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s sociology department after being in discussions with sociology chair Cherylynn Bassani. However, the funding was later declined by Bassani, who had also requested funding for course releases, which the KSA did not accept.

“We had asked that KPU or the instructor find a different avenue … as the KSA will not be able to fund the course releases, [since it isn’t] allowed [in] our mandate,” Goyal said.

He also said the student association is still consulting its legal counsel about the special general meeting student membership held on May 30.

“We are further [discussing] the petition, and we have received our reports from forensics … [and] the legal counsel to see what further avenues to explore [regarding the] fraud documents that have been submitted,” Goyal said.

Ragavan said he attended a Gallivan conference from June 9 to 12, where there were discussions about the current plan, renewal fees, and upcoming fee changes.

“We did have a lot of attendees from different universities that we were able to [converse] with as well as bounce a couple ideas of what’s on their plans and what they notice has worked and have been more challenging towards their students,” he said.

In an email statement to The Runner, Vice-President Finance and Operations Manmeet Kaur, who attended the meeting along with Ragavan, wrote that the conference focused on ways to increase engagement through the health app, which is included as part of the KSA’s health and dental plan.

“We discussed strategies to help students better understand and access the services available to them through the app,” she wrote. “A key takeaway from the conversation was that vision and dental services are the most used benefits among students.”

She wrote the discussion focused on increasing awareness about the plan’s benefits amongst international students who “may not be fully aware of what their plan offers.”

During the June 26 meeting, the executive committee approved $3,619.12 for the KSA’s Sukhmani Sahib Path event as well as $157.50 in funding for the Sustainability Club’s Repair Cafe.

The executives also renewed several KSA clubs until April 30, 2026, each subject to the association’s bylaws, regulations, and policies.

“Our regulations … request student groups are valid for a year. So we had hoped [with] this process that we could start last year, but we were into collaboration and then all the talking terms as to how we could lead it,” Goyal said.

“So we worked off last year, and we implemented this year that all the clubs have to submit an updated list of their membership and updated constitution.”

He added that the KSA is hoping to carry on this process for clubs moving forward.

“We will also be changing out the regulations that currently state that recognized student groups have to be renewed in September, so we are going to make it [for the end of] April [every year].”

The clubs exempt from this process were those which were newly formed, as it didn’t make sense for them to re-apply after they just got approved by the executives, Goyal said. He added the timeline all other clubs were given to get in their documents for renewal was June 21.

“Any club which has not renewed by this date and aren’t in this motion or haven’t submitted documentation to the club’s coordinator will now have to apply as a new club,” he said.

The groups renewed at the meeting included the Barkat Club, Bible Study @ Kwantlen, KPU Art Collective, KPU Cricket Club, KPU Entrepreneurs Club, KPU Japan Club, KPU Marketing Association, KPU Pre-Law Club, KPU Pre-Med Club, KPU SOCA, The Indoors Club, Kwantlen Anthropology Student Association, Kwantlen Badminton Club, Kwantlen Gaming Guild, Kwantlen IT Club, Kwantlen Pageturners, and Kwantlen Psychology Society.

The other renewed KSA clubs were the Kwantlen Sikh Students’ Association, NextGen KPU, Operation and Technical Management Club, School Outreach Ministry, Sociology Student Club, Sustainable Agriculture Student Association, KSA Brew Club, Kwantlen Creative Writing Guild, KPU Table Tennis Club, and Repair Cafe Sustainability Club.

The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for July 24 at 1:00 pm. Interested students can email info@kusa.ca to join the meeting.