Student Rights Centre Report Remains in Limbo

KSA waiting to release document compiling student complaints

The Kwantlen Student Association’s Student Rights Centre—which assists students involved in disputes with KPU staff or faculty—has created a report detailing issues with the university’s structure and policies that have been brought to the Centre by KPU students.

Unfortunately, the report cannot presently be released to the public.

Early last year, the SRC began collecting anonymous case studies of students who came to them throughout 2015, using the complaints to identify and address systemic issues with the university’s policies and procedures. This information was compiled into a report which was completed in November 2016.

“What we want people to do after reading this report is say, ‘There’s more that, as a university, we can do,’” KSA Vice President Student Services Tanvir Singh told The Runner in November, shortly after the SRC completed the document.

The report was originally planned to be released on Nov. 22. However, the Kwantlen Student Association has opted not to release the report until after SRC members have had a chance to meet and discuss its findings with university officials.

“The university tells [the Kwantlen Student Association] about any big issues that happen with the university a week or a day before, and even that one day gives us time to prepare,” Singh told The Runner in November. “Even if they know we may not like whatever they’re doing, they give us the respect of telling us beforehand, and so we think that’s a decent expectation for them to have of us.”

Singh said that the SRC had planned to meet with university officials by the report’s originally planned Nov. 22 date, but as of this time the meeting has yet to take place. The KSA holds firm to their explanation that they are waiting to discuss the report with university officials before allowing outside eyes to see their findings.

After reaching out to the university for comment on the meeting process, The Runner was told by KPU’s media and communications manager Corry Anderson-Fennell that she was unable to find a university official who is aware of the report.

According to Singh, this is because the KSA only meets with university officials once or twice a month, and due to the holiday break and prioritization of other items on the KSA’s agenda they have not yet brought up the Student Rights Centre Report.

“In terms of the report itself, literally no one at the university knows about the contents of the report and not many more know that it exists at all,” says Singh.

Singh also requested that The Runner not contact KPU’s liaison to the KSA, Vice Provost Jane Fee, regarding this report.

At this time it is unclear when exactly this document will be made available to the public.