KSA council shakes up committee make-up

The Kwantlen Student Association held its first council meeting on Aug. 12 after a two-month gap.

The association’s bylaws state a council meeting must be held at least once per month.

Council’s last meeting was on June 6 where all councilors, except executives, were appointed to seven committees. At the August meeting, council made 21 committee changes.

“The internal committee members met with other council members according to their interests. And internal committee discussed and reshuffle[d],” Science and Horticulture Rep. Anmol Bansal, who proposed the motion from the internal committee, wrote in the meeting chat.

Among the changes was removing Indigenous Students’ Representative Elysia Ritchotte from both committees she was part of.

Ritchotte told The Runner in May that she was not continuing on KSA council to prioritize her well-being. However, Executive Director Timothii Ragavan and Speaker of Council Amandeep Kaur Brar said they didn’t receive any notice from Ritchotte that she was stepping down.

Bansal sits on the most committees with six, while Business Rep. Yuvraj Singh sits on the least with one appointment to the social justice and equity committee.

All four voting executives — Gurdit Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Harwinder Singh, and Sukhmandeep Singh — still do not sit on any committees.

The KSA’s bylaws require executives to sit on the committee pertaining to their portfolio — student life, finance and operations, university affairs, or external.

Council made its first committee appointments during its June 5 meeting.

However, only the internal committee had held a meeting by Aug. 12, Bansal wrote. 

Executive reports

Three of five executives gave a report.

Vice President (VP) External Affairs Sukhmandeep wrote that he would email his report. The Runner has not received a report as of publication.

Rohit Uppal, who sits in the non-voting position of associate president, was not at the meeting.

VP Student Life Sukhdev said the KSA held an event with Fraser Health’s South Asian Health Institute to host a sexual health focus group for South Asian students.

With Women’s Rep. Rukmandeep Kaur, Sukhdev said he was also working on a mental health awareness event, which was late.

“I also have an ongoing event topic with [Ragavan], so we can do [events] on-campus on a low budget,” Sukhdev said.

VP University Affairs Harwinder wrote in the meeting chat that he is working on “concerns regarding parking rates and the Richmond shuttle” with Ragavan.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University doubled its parking rates on May 1. The one hour rate jumped from $2 to $4, and the daily parking pass increased from $5 to $10.

Harwinder wrote that Ragavan, who did not attend the council meeting, met with KPU staff about parking rates and the intercampus shuttle.

“According to the staff, there are not many students currently using the shuttle. Regarding paid parking, they mentioned that they have not received any direct emails or concerns from students about the parking rates,” Harwinder wrote.

Harwinder added that he is working to create a student petition to show that the parking rates’ increase is an issue students care about.

President and VP Finance and Operations Gurdit sent his report after the council meeting.

“The past month and a half has mainly focused on financial budget preparation, student insurance discussions and referendum planning, external engagement through the ALUMO Summit, and planning student engagement events for the upcoming Fall semester,” Gurdit wrote in a statement to The Runner.

Gurdit, with Business Rep. Jasman Singh, attended the ALUMO annual stakeholders’ conference in Montreal in May. ALUMO, formerly Gallivan, is the KSA’s health plan provider.

“These discussions provided us an opportunity to learn about different types of student insurance plans, and we also discussed potential improvements for our own plan,” he wrote, adding that there may be a referendum on the student insurance plan in two to three months.