KSA more than $3.5 million over budget in 2025

The Kwantlen Student Association was $3.5 million over budget in 2025. In 2026, the KSA projected it would generate a total revenue of $400,000 more than it made last year.

“I’m currently working with the vice-president finance and operations in order to hopefully come up with some solutions,” Executive Director Timothii Ragavan said at a Feb. 20 council meeting.

“We are still looking to figure out some of the solutions.”

Last January, the association adopted its 2025 budget. Its planned income was nearly $6 million, yet it only collected $5.5 million.

The KSA generates revenue by collecting student membership fees, accumulating interest revenue, and sales at member services and Grassroots Cafe. Through its multipass program, the association also sells Club 16 passes.

“Kwantlen Polytechnic University has raised its concerns with the [KSA] regarding the association’s current financial position,” Vice-President Student Affairs Joshua Mitchell wrote in a statement to The Runner.

“In addition, we have sought confirmation that the KSA’s financial reserves and investments will be used in alignment with its member-approved mandate.”

The 2025 budget the KSA adopted planned to run a deficit of nearly $900,000. However, the association’s expenses were $7.4 million, instead of the proposed $6.9 million.

Comparatively, the Douglas Students’ Union at Douglas College had a surplus of almost $80,000 in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Alma Mater Society planned an almost $11,000 surplus in its 2025-26 preliminary budget.

The KSA spent an additional $540,000 more than the deficit it planned to run. However, when adding all of the KSA’s budgets reporting a deficit together, the student union over-spent by $3.5 million.

“I think that’s just ridiculous, because who is balancing their books?” says Stephanie Gonzalez, a KPU student.

“[If] we’re getting to a point where this is going to start toppling over and it’s going to create a whole entire issue — who is allowing that, first and foremost?” she says. “Why do you allow an incompetent person to go like that?”

Gonzalez organized a student protest against the KSA during the association’s elections on Feb. 12 and 13 at the Surrey campus.

“It’s shady. It’s absolutely shady. $3.5 million — that’s a lot,” Gonzalez says. 

Last year, the KSA was over budget in operations, clubs and events, multipass, and Peer Support.

Both clubs and events and Peer Support planned to be in a deficit in 2025. Clubs and events’ planned deficit was $439,139, while Peer Support’s was $57,000.

Clubs and events was over budget by $709,827 — without counting its planned deficit. However, the association still spent more than $1 million on clubs and events — resulting in almost $380,000 more expenses incurred than planned.

Clubs and events also received more revenue, all from student membership fees, than planned — an additional $100,000.

The largest expense in clubs and events was for KSA events, which were over budget by more than $500,000. Clubs support funding totaled $78,647 — 87 per cent of the proposed amount.

At the Feb. 20 council meeting, Vice-President Student Life Ishant Goyal said off-campus events, including the Golden Glow Gala for Diwali, Halloween Bash, and New Year Bash with special guest and Punjabi music artist Sharry Mann, all contributed to the KSA events spending.

“The number and the type of events increased the cost, and then the space bookings and transportation,” he said.

Peer Support’s actual deficit was $24,038. The program was over budget only in wages and benefits by $1,427.

Multipass reported a $392,299 deficit. This budget’s core expenses include Club 16 Trevor Linden Fitness, the shuttle bus, and the KSA’s financial hardship bursary. It also includes other expenses like KSA Cares programs — which was over budget by more than $275,000.

Operations was over budget by $2.4 million — double its proposed revenue and expenses.

“Across the province, student-collected fees should be managed with strong financial oversight, transparency, and a clear focus on services and advocacy that most directly benefit students,” the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) wrote in a statement to The Runner.

Operations spending

The operations budget includes overspending in 11 categories. The largest differences from proposed expenses to actual spending were in legal and professional fees, Grassroots Cafe, and wages and benefits for council members and staff.

In legal and professional fees, the KSA planned to spend $200,000. However, the association spent an additional $588,734 — nearly 200 per cent over its budget.

Grassroots Cafe’s expenses were planned at $233,000, yet the KSA-run eatery spent $380,295. 

Grassroots’ proposed revenue for 2025 was $435,000, but it only made $148,622 — 34 per cent of the projected amount. The café’s revenue fell short of its expenses by $231,673.

Wages and benefits for elected representatives was $233,677 more than budgeted. The Runner reported that KSA councillors compensation for 2025 was nearly $1 million — almost three times more than the second-highest student association compensation in B.C., which is Simon Fraser University’s student union.

The KSA updated its regulations at the Feb. 20 council meeting to change executive council compensation and decrease meeting honorariums.

Under the new regulations, all executive council members are paid a biweekly stipend of $1,922.40 with no hourly rate, effective March 1. The previous biweekly pay was $24.03 per hour.

Executive committee members also receive a maximum semesterly tuition benefit of $10,000 or six credits.

All elected representatives receive a meal allowance of $100 per day, travel reimbursements, and partial cell phone bill reimbursements, among others.

The new regulations decreased councillors’ honorariums for all council meetings from $125 to $100. Council also receives additional honorariums for committee meetings.

Wages and benefits for staff were over budget by $730,220, reaching nearly double the proposed spending of $831,616.

KSA staff also receive a meal allowance of $100 per day, travel reimbursements, and partial cell phone bill reimbursements, among others.

Revenue

The majority of KSA revenue comes from student membership fees.

All KPU students pay for the association’s programs and services, including the bursary fund, advocacy service, intramurals/Active KSA, clubs and events, lobby fund, REBOOT Computer Repair, Peer Support, social justice fund, START, operations, and the student union building capital fee.

Other student fees include the health and dental plan, the Canadian Federation of Students’ fee, the U-Pass and multipass program, and the student publication fee, which funds The Runner and pulpMAG through the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society.

In 2025, the association had a student membership fee shortfall in three budgets: multipass, START, and operations.

Multipass membership fees were $262,738 less than the proposed amount — a 21-per-cent shortfall. START, the KSA’s volunteer program, only collected 70 per cent of its proposed student fees of $147,816.

Operations collected 99 per cent of its proposed student membership fees, facing a shortfall of just $14,929.

In January 2024, the federal government announced a cap on international student visas. KPU faced a significant revenue decrease because of a drop in student enrolment.

During the spring 2023 semester, international students totaled 6,142. However, at the start of this semester, there are just 2,010 international students at KPU — a 67-per-cent decrease.

“We have asked the KSA to share how it plans to balance its budget while maintaining the services to students for which they have levied fees. Those plans need to account for the ongoing decline in enrolment across the post-secondary sector in Canada, which will reduce revenue from fees,” Mitchell wrote.

From December 2023 to November 2025, there was a 97-per-cent decline in new international study permits holders across the country.

Canadian universities are feeling the pressure of fewer students as well. The Global Enrolment Benchmark Survey reported that 60 per cent of post-secondary institutions in Canada are preparing for budget cuts and 50 per cent are planning to cut staff in 2026.

Mitchell added that while the KSA is an independent society, “the university has reiterated an offer to provide independent financial management expertise to assist the KSA in budget planning.”

Despite the decline in student enrolment, the KSA saw an increase in student membership fees — an additional $250,000 was collected than planned.

Unused budgets

Both the bursary fund and the social justice budget went unused in 2025.

The KSA’s website states the 2024-25 student membership fees, which lists the bursary fund at $1.29 per semester and the social justice fund at $0.26 per credit.

However, the current bursary fee is $1.99 per credit — an almost 20 times increase from 2024-25 for a student enrolled for 12 credits. The increase to the bursary fund was approved during the spring 2024 referendum and reviewed by KPU’s board of governors at the Jan. 29, 2025 meeting.

The social justice fee did not increase for the 2025-26 academic year.

The KSA’s proposed 2025 revenue for the bursary fund was $40,059, but the association collected $443,306 — none of which was used.

Gonzalez is “pissed” the bursary fund was not used. She depends on student loans to pay her tuition — and her most recent loan application was denied.

“[I’m] pissed because I wouldn’t have to be busting my ass over 44 hours a week just to try and make ends meet in my own household. [I’m] pissed because, at the end of the day, I’m pretty sure there are students that are way worse off than me, financially speaking, and they probably didn’t even know that this existed,” Gonzalez says.

While the social justice fund was not used, the KSA’s social justice and equity committee held 33 meetings in 2025.

Under the KSA’s previous regulations, all committee chairs received a $175 honorarium per meeting. Each committee member also received $125 per meeting.

The new regulations decreased a committee chair’s honorarium to $150 per meeting, and each committee member’s honorarium to $100 per meeting.

Even if only the chair attended all 33 committee meetings, the compensation totals $5,775.

“The committee works on addressing social justice needs by holding events and cooperating with external organizations,” the KSA’s website states.

2026 budget

The KSA’s 2026 budget projects a total revenue of $5.9 million — more than $400,000 its 2025 actual revenue.

The 2026 projected expenses also total $5.9 million, meaning the KSA plans to spend almost $1.5 million less than last year.

“My understanding is that the revenue projections in the budget are not the ones provided by the [financial controller],” KSA Records Coordinator and Archivist John O’Brian wrote in the Feb. 20 meeting’s Microsoft Teams chat.

However, Goyal said the numbers in the 2026 budget are from the financial controller, Rolando Navarro.

“It is my opinion that there was a draft budget that was sent with the expected numbers in there — but there could be something that I might not be aware about,” Goyal said. “We can all get together on this and then see where the numbers [are].”

“It is not projected by Rolando. It might need revision,” Accounting and Payroll Coordinator Rajwinder Kaur wrote in the meeting chat.

Compared to last year’s expenses, the largest cuts are planned for operations of $2.1 million, more than $700,000 to clubs and events, a multipass decrease of more than $300,000, and an almost $25,000 cut to Peer Support’s spending. All four of these programs were over budget last year.

Goyal added that there may be some changes to the 2026 budget.

“It might stay the same. It might change. Not really sure at this point as to what is happening because of the current [international student] projection that’s falling every semester.”

In 2025, the KSA collected an average of $490 per student. 

If KPU enrolment keeps to its current spring 2026 student headcount of 11,108 for the entire academic year, the KSA would collect $5,442,920 — 8-per-cent less than its 2026 projected revenue.

“From my point of view, it is feasible, but I know there are some changes that we’re hoping to make to ensure that we are looking at the most cost efficient methods,” Ragavan said at the council meeting.

The association’s student membership fees will be increasing by 2.37 per cent for the 2026-27 academic year — as per a November 2015 referendum indexing all KSA fees to the British Columbia Consumer Price Index.

All KSA fees, except for the student publication fee of $0.75 per credit, will increase in September. The U-Pass fee will increase in May and again in September.

“KPU believes the KSA has a duty to manage its finances in the best interests of as many of its students as possible. If the KSA is unable to provide us with satisfactory assurance of this, we will assess what other mechanisms are available to us,” Mitchell wrote.

The KSA did not respond to The Runner’s request for a comment before publication.