News brief: KSA regulation changes delayed to a 3rd meeting due to lack of quorum

The Kwantlen Student Association council failed to vote on three regulation changes concerning election procedures due to a lack of councillors in attendance, during a Nov. 21 council meeting.

The governance committee first proposed the motions at the Nov. 14 council meeting, which were deferred to this meeting. The motions are now on the docket for the Dec. 5 meeting. 

The election procedure changes include removing student clubs from the slating provision, reinstating residency requirements for campus representative candidates, and correcting a typo. 

The KSA election is tentatively scheduled for January, The Runner reported last month.

If approved, the changes would allow student clubs to endorse candidates. This comes after council previously amended the regulations so candidates can’t accept endorsements from student clubs.

The KSA’s executive committee, which is made up of elected councillors, is in charge of approving funding for student clubs.

When asked about the slating changes, governance committee chair Anmol Bansal wrote, “There is nothing serious about that,” in the meeting’s Microsoft Teams chat. 

Policy and Political Affairs Coordinator Diamond Obera said the KSA has recently had issues with elections, including slating. 

“These are pretty significant changes to the regulations, specifically as it relates to elections,” he said.

Bansal added he was unable to speak or unmute his mic.

“Maybe the internet issue,” he wrote.

“There’s no connectivity issues in the room,” KSA Records Coordinator and Archivist John O’Brian said. “We got this room specifically so we could do this.”

No councillor attended the meeting in person.

Ten of 16 councillors were present online. Of the KSA’s executive committee, only Associate President Shawinderdeep Singh attended the council meeting. However, attendance dropped to just seven councillors throughout the meeting. At least eight councillors needed to be present to meet quorum.

All councillors receive an honorarium of $125 for every council meeting.

“It is very unusual for student unions to provide committee meeting honoraria like [the] KSA does,” O’Brian wrote in the meeting chat. 

“We give committee members honoraria, so they can cover their travel costs and shifts at work and come here and be present,” O’Brian said.

The proposed motions also included changes to campus representative requirements. All candidates for these positions would have to take a class on the campus they choose to represent in the current or previous semester, or live in the city of the campus they are running from.

Bansal wrote he would answer questions about the regulation changes via email. The Runner reached out to him, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for Dec. 5 at 1:00 pm. Interested students can email info@kusa.ca to join the meeting.