KSA to Release Campus Space Audit

Report will compile info on public spaces across KPU campuses

The Kwantlen Student Association has been working on an audit to find out how effectively campus space is utilized at KPU for the past year.

KSA members decided to do the audit after realizing neither the student association nor the university had any sort of comprehensive document detailing the space unused and available for students on campus.

“It’s been an ongoing and very, very chaotic project, the reason being that this is the first time that any students at KPU or the KSA have ever decided to do a project like this,” says KSA Vice President Student Services Tanvir Singh.

The audit required a group of students to look around campus and evaluate the spaces that students have available to them. While the project was initially conceived as a relatively simple and straightforward report, it has since grown in scope and complexity. The project was originally spearheaded by Singh and KSA Vice President Student Life Natasha Lopes, before being passed to John Shruktaj and other KSA members.

“Back when I was directly in charge of the project, one of the things we found was that we wanted to keep it really simple. But as we kept going on we found all these different measurements that we could use,” says Singh.

Some of the original measurements used for the space audit were noise levels and the availability of electrical outlets. Soon after, auditors added other categories, such as ease of access and proximity to amenities. The report later became more complex with the introduction of categories for the type of space, from academic spaces such as the library to non-academic recreational spaces such as the front of the main building on the Surrey campus.

While the full results of the report won’t be publicly known until after its release, Singh says that the general takeaway is that there are many spaces on campus that are currently underused. The KSA is hopeful that the document will be invaluable for students, clubs, and university officials to refer to while planning events.

“One of the things we’re making sure of is to make it a very professional document that’s accessible for not only the KSA and students but also the university,” says Singh. “They’ve been waiting for this project for a while as well, because they are interested to see not just what exactly kind of spaces we do have but what the perception of those spaces are.”

While the space audit is nearing completion, there is no way of knowing when exactly the document will be released. Singh says that the KSA may opt to wait until the current renovations to club spaces in the Birch building are completed this spring before finally releasing the report. According to Singh, “It’ll be done when it’s done.”