News Brief: New VP Student Life appointed, 2023 budget draft approved at KSA council meeting

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The Kwantlen Student Association held their first council meeting of the semester with the council members elected in the byelection on Dec. 2 at 10:00 am in hybrid format. 

Executives President, VP University Affairs, and International Student Representative Armaan Dhillon; VP Finance and Operations and Students with Disabilities Rep Lesli Sangha; VP External Affairs, interim VP Student Life, and Langley Campus Rep Karan Singh were in attendance. 

New members of council in attendance included Navpreet Singh, Henry Chang, Abdullah Randhawa, Karan Maushel, Rupinder Hundal, Earndeep Singh Kandola, Divya Sachdeva, Dilnoor Kaur, Diljot Singh Narula, Manroopbir Sidhu, Gurjot Singh, and Guntas Kochar. Queer Rep Destiny Lang was unable to attend the meeting. 

The minutes from the July 15 and Aug. 12 council meetings were unavailable for approval. 

Randhawa and Kochar nominated themselves for the VP Student Life position.  

“For the VP thing, like, I normally do like arguing the thing … I’m trying to bring a change … like planning to bring a change to student life over here,” Randhawa said. “I’m trying to bring, like, different things like events back on campus…. There [is] a political divide, a lot of things are in Surrey but not in Langley.” 

“I have been [at KPU] for almost two years now and I have faced some challenges, and I’ve seen other people face some challenges,” Kochar said. “And I think I connect with the community and I connect with the people…. It’s not just about the quality of student life, it’s about the experience that other students are facing in classrooms.” 

After a heated 25-minute question and answer period, the council cast anonymous ballots for Speaker of Council Titus Gregory to count. Kochar was elected as VP Student Life. 

Councillors appointed to the Internal Committee are Navpreet, Maushel, Narula, Gurjot, and Sidhu. 

Council received a presentation from Red Star Immigration with a quote of $50 per 30-minute consultation, up to 100 consultations per month, and a 10 per cent discount. Kwantlen Polytechnic University students could access 40-hours, and 50-hours for KSA council members. Narula had concerns not all students would utilize the service, and the discussion was pushed to the next council meeting. 

In his report, Dhillon brought forth a motion to require KSA staff work in-person starting Jan. 2.

“Our provincial guidelines have already made clear that we can work from campus, from offices right now, and I think yes we should also move on, so that workers would come around and they can socialize … and it would be good for mental health of the employees,” Dhillon said. 

Executive Director Ben Newsom said they hadn’t heard about this prior to the meeting and asked if staff had been asked how they would feel about working in-person, which Dhillon said he only spoke with the KSA legal counsel David Borins. 

Newsom said the issue of the KSA office being closed isn’t due to staff working from home, but because staff get sick and there is no one to fill in their shift. They added that staff are accessible by phone or email for students, and students often schedule appointments as needed. 

“We do have considerations for people working remotely for a number of reasons, some of which are disabilities … some people are immunocompromised, so we do have accommodations in place,” Newsom said. “As a person responsible for human resources at the KSA it’s a little disconcerting that I wasn’t consulted in any way.” 

The council voted to move in-camera to privately discuss the motion for an hour and 15-minutes before resuming the council meeting. 

In her report, Sangha proposed several funds increases, including increasing the Social Justice fund to a shared $20,000 among the seven constituency reps ($2,857.14 each), $20,000 for Giving Tuesday to provide one new bursary per year for students, and an increase in the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) fund from $45,000 to $70,000. 

Sangha also proposed increasing honorariums, the amount paid to each council member per meeting they attend. If approved, honorariums would increase from $75 to $100, the committee chair honorarium would increase from $75 to $125, and council members or students who attend a special or standing committee honorarium would increase from $50 to $75. 

“This was just included in my report to bring awareness to this so that students can at least start thinking about it before the draft budget is brought to council for their review,” Sangha said. 

A two-thirds majority vote of council would be required to amend KSA Regulations for the honorarium increase. 

Since his last report, Karan arranged a meeting with KSA club presidents to address the gap in communication between them. 

Gregory called for a motion to extend the meeting as the four-hour mark approached, as per KSA bylaws. The motion passed unanimously for an “indefinite” amount of time. 

Gregory had to leave the meeting for another commitment soon after, so Dhillon assumed the chair position of council. 

Newsom had to leave for another meeting before they could present their report, but their proposed motion was passed unanimously for funding for the 2023 Kwantlen St. Farmers Market. 

Council discussed a complaint they received from a student going through their volunteer program, and requested a report from KSA staff to present at their January council meeting. 

After some debate, the proposed 2023 KSA draft budget was passed, subject to changes and amendments. 

The meeting was adjourned after five-hours, and remaining agenda items were pushed. 

The next council meeting is scheduled for Dec. 16 at 10:00 am over Zoom and in Birch 250 at the Surrey campus.