KSA council elects executive committee, holds in-camera health presentation

The Kwantlen Student Association council elected its executive committee and held an in-camera health and dental presentation during an April 15 meeting.

This marked the first meeting for the 2026-27 council. All four vice-president (VP) executive committee positions were filled. The election was not on the agenda, however, the KSA’s regulations require the executive committee to be voted in at the first council meeting of the term.

University affairs

Arts Representative Harwinder Singh won the VP university affairs race against Business Representative Gurdit Singh — who served in the role from December to March during the previous council’s term. Harwinder received 12 votes to Gurdit’s two.

The VP university affairs must attend all regularly scheduled Kwantlen Polytechnic University senate and board of governors (BOG) meetings.

“I haven’t attended any of the BOG or Senate meetings in my past term,” Gurdit wrote in the meeting’s Microsoft Teams chat.

Both Harwinder and Gurdit wrote that they would attend meetings if elected.

Finance and operations

At first, no council member was interested in the finance and operations portfolio. However, Gurdit, having just lost the university affairs race, nominated himself.

“As VP university affairs, and in the president role as well, during that period, I did a lot of things included with finance,” he said, adding that he is also studying finance at KPU.

Gurdit, running unopposed, was elected with 10 votes in favour and five against.

External affairs

Arts Representative Sukhmandeep Singh was unanimously elected as VP external affairs, running unopposed.

Sukhmandeep did not give a candidacy speech. The Runner asked about lobbying politicians and attending student advocacy events — duties part of the portfolio.

“Yes, if I get the chance I will be contacting them soon and will be working to advocate for students on different platforms,” Sukhmandeep wrote. “My key points for advocacy will be more student housing, affordability, mental health and other issues faced by our students.”

Student life

Cloverdale Campus Representative Sukhdev Singh was elected VP student life, running unopposed.

“I’m committed to enhancing student engagement in a thoughtful and inclusive way,” Sukhdev said. “I understand the importance of wellness, organizing events, strong clubs, sport, and clear communication with the council.”

In 2025, the clubs and events budget totaled more than $1 million, The Runner reported. The largest expenditure was KSA events, which were over budget by more than $500,000.

“I [will] try to organize events on campus rather than off campus,” he said.

Sukhdev was elected with 13 votes in favour and two against.

The first executive committee meeting was held on April 23, where Gurdit was elected president.

In-camera presentation

Representatives from Alumo — a student health, dental, and wellness plan provider formerly known as Gallivan — gave an in-camera presentation.

“I think that there was a request to go in-camera for this presentation, as it requires a lot of internal documents to be shared within the council,” KSA Executive Director Timothii Ragavan said.

There was no request from any council member during the meeting.

Council can only move in-camera for legal and human resources matters, as well as property purchases and sales, as per the KSA’s bylaws. However, the bylaws allow for council to move in-camera for business outside of these areas through unanimous consent of the representatives.

“[It’s] in-camera based on human resources for the internal documents, as well as the conversation of internal documents to be disclosed to council and, inevitably, all its membership,” Ragavan said.

“There isn’t really a free floating category of internal — it’s internal because it’s internal,” Records Coordinator and Archivist John O’Brian said. “It’s related to something like some individual’s personal information, some student’s information, some confidential business information.”

Council approved Alumo as the new student benefits platform, effective Sept. 1. The transition will be implemented at no additional cost to students, Ragavan wrote.

“It’s just an opportunity to have one app where students can have access to [all of their benefits] … in one platform,” said Arr Farah, Alumo’s partnerships and development director.