KSA council makes committee appointments, discusses next steps for revising budget

The Kwantlen Student Association council appointed members to seven committees during a meeting on June 5.

Indigenous Students’ Representative Elysia Ritchotte was added to two committees: environmental sustainability as well as social justice and equity.

However, in an email statement sent to The Runner in mid-May, Ritchotte wrote that she was not continuing on KSA council to prioritize her well-being.

Executive Director Timothii Ragavan and Speaker of Council Amandeep Kaur Brar both said they did not receive any email from Ritchotte about stepping down from council.

“Technically speaking, she is still an active council member,” Ragavan said.

The Runner has reached out to Ritchotte for clarification and will provide updates as they become available.

Besides Ritchotte, Gurustat Singh, Jasman Singh, Anmol Bansal, Harkomalpreet Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Anirudh Agnihotri, Sukhpalpreet Singh, and Ashutosh Dhingra were appointed to the social justice and equity committee.

The environmental sustainability committee is also made up of Jasman, Gurustat, Dhingra, Sukhpalpreet, Agnihotri, Gurnoor Singh, and Mehakpreet Singh.

Bansal, Simranpreet Kaur, Harkomalpreet, Gurnoor, and Jasman were appointed to the external affairs committee. The university affairs committee is made up of Rukmandeep Kaur, Mehakpreet, Agnihotri, Harkomalpreet, and Bansal.

Jasman, Simranpreet, Yuvraj, Gurustat, and Bansal were appointed to the student life committee. Simranpreet, Yuvraj, Bansal, Mehakpreet, Jasman, and Sukhpalpreet make up the governance committee.

Bansal, Rukmandeep, Mehakpreet, Jasman, and Gurustat were placed into the finance and operations committee.

All four executives were not appointed to any committees. Jasman and Bansal were appointed to the most committees, at six each.

Committee chairs receive an honorarium of $150 per meeting, and committee members receive $100 per meeting.

President and Vice-President Finance and Operations Gurdit Singh said that he has been working on a new budget with Ragavan.

At an April 29 meeting, council passed a motion to advise Gurdit and the finance committee to review and revise the KSA’s 2026 budget.

“I will be recommending that the finance committee meet next week for its first meeting to review the previous budget and discuss the proposed budget,” he said. “I also hope to have the final budget recommended by the finance committee before the next council meeting.”

Women’s Representative Rukmandeep said at its first meeting on June 4, the internal committee discussed which councillors should be appointed to each committee.

“We talked to the other council members and had a discussion [outside of an] internal committee meeting [on] what committees they feel like they could work better on, what their interests are in, and where they feel they’d be passionate enough to do their work to the fullest.”

Rukmandeep said there was also a conversation at the internal meeting about the Grassroots redevelopment ad-hoc committee.

“By the next meeting, we’re going to have a report [on] whether there’s stuff that needs to be done on the Grassroots committee or if it should be disbanded,” Rukmandeep said.

Gurdit said PricewaterhouseCoopers — the investigator tasked by the B.C. finance ministry to conduct a financial audit into the KSA — had its initial point of contact with the association about two weeks ago.

“They are getting the initial documents out of the KSA to investigate, so that’s all I know for now,” he said.

Ragavan said the KSA heard concerns from students regarding Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s parking fee increases.

Starting May 1, KPU doubled its hourly and daily parking fee rates to $4 per hour and $10 for a daily parking pass.

“We have a possibility of setting up a meeting with the KPU team in regards to discussing any possible reductions for students,” Ragavan said.

Ragavan said he recommends council put forward a date for the KSA’s byelections, advising middle to late September. After the KSA general elections during the spring semester, nine vacant positions remain.

“[The] KSA will be putting up posters in this coming month [to inform] students [of] the byelections,” he said. “We will be doing our very best to set up tables throughout the course of summer as well to keep students informed.”

He added that one of the foosball tables at the KPU Tech campus is past the point of repair, and the KSA is looking into the possibility of replacing it.

The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for June 26 at 1:00 pm. Students can email info@kusa.ca for more information.