News Brief: KSA makes several regulation changes, including allowing associate president to be a former councillor

The Kwantlen Student Association council changed its regulations to allow the associate president to not be a sitting representative, during a council meeting on Feb. 20.

The rule change allows the associate president to be either a member of the current or former council, effective immediately. Before, the associate president could only be a current councillor.

“We are not permanent in council so we need more experienced people around as we just have one year and have a lot of work and we have to achieve [a] lot of things,” KSA President and Vice-President University Affairs Gurdit Singh wrote in the meeting’s Microsoft Teams chat. “If experienced people are around they can assist better and things can be easier.”

“Gurdit, that’s why you have an executive director and a bunch of staff as well,” KSA Records Coordinator and Archivist John O’Brian said.

“If the President needs someone from previous council to assist in case someone from current council does not have those skills, they can appoint someone from previous council until someone new is trained,” Associate President Anmol Bansal wrote in the meeting chat. “It does not say it has to be someone from previous council. It is giving an option in case it is needed.”

O’Brian wrote that he and others spent lots of time developing council orientation materials a few years ago, so it wouldn’t be on the executive director to handle it all.

He also wrote that the president can’t direct another councillor, citing a regulation that notes the president is “first among equals” but “does not exercise hierarchical or supervisory authority over the other members of Council.”

Singh amended the motion, which was the version council passed, that changes the associate president’s duties from taking direction from the president to assisting them in their role.

“The position has always been really contrary to the governance model of the KSA,” O’Brian said. “I don’t think there is actually a way to reword these responsibilities that doesn’t conflict with the bylaw.”

Singh seconded his amended motion, then abstained during voting.

“It is my vote,” he wrote. “My choice.”

Council also passed a motion to decrease the representative attendance honorariums. Effective immediately, councillors will now receive $100 — instead of the prior $125 — for each regularly scheduled and special council meeting.

“We are reducing it because of budget needs,” Singh wrote.

Council members will also receive $100 for a maximum of 10 meetings of each standing and special committee every semester. Previously, the rate was $125 for a maximum of 12 meetings a semester.

The associate president’s honorarium was changed from $12,000 per semester to $1,500 biweekly.

Through the pay change, an associate president can earn $39,000 annually, rather than the previous $36,000 — an extra $3,000.

“It’s just the same pay and divided into biweekly,” Bansal wrote.

Standing and special committee chairs had their honorariums decrease to $150 per meeting for a maximum of 10 meetings per semester. Before, they received $175 each meeting for a maximum of 12 meetings a semester.

Ad-hoc committee members will now receive $100 per meeting for a maximum of 10 meetings per semester and per committee, while chairs of these committees will get $150 per meeting for the same semesterly limit. The ad-hoc committee member and chair rates were $125 and $175 respectively for a max of 12 meetings each semester.

Through a separate motion, council voted to decrease the maximum number of standing and special committee meetings non-council members can be paid $100 for attending at the end of a semester from 12 to 10 per committee.

Council also approved a motion to change the biweekly stipend executive committee members receive from $24.03 per hour to $1,922.40 with no hourly rate, effective March 1.

In another motion, councillors voted to change the required hours of executive committee members from at least 80 to 90 hours biweekly — with at least 20 of those hours completed in the main KSA office — to a total of 80 hours biweekly, with no stipulation about minimum hours of work in the office.

“If someone does not achieve 80 hours, and let’s say they put in like 50 hours, [the stipend] will be divided by [those hours],” Vice-President Student Life Ishant Goyal said, adding that this change will result in executives making less than the previous rules.

Council also passed a motion to change its optional base pay for representatives, including executive committee members. At the end of each month, representatives can apply to the executive director for an additional honorarium of up to $100 per month for having completed or exceeded all of the expectations outlined in Section II, Article 2 of the regulations.

Previously, the rule was that representatives can apply for an additional honorarium at the end of each semester and at the end of their term, with the amount decided by the executive director on a case-by-case basis.

“The additional honorarium has listed regulations and requirements in order to be able to receive it,” Executive Director Timothii Ragavan said.

“One of them is attending all council events, relatively performing all council duties, and there is an additional honorarium form that must be filled out to ensure that you are following in with all your council duties as well. Once that is sent in, it is required to be submitted to myself to be able to be reviewed.”

Council also removed discounts representatives can receive while “performing business on behalf of KSA,” effective immediately. A 50-per-cent discount for Grassroots Cafe was scrapped, in addition to 100-per-cent discounts for report binding and laminating, cost of printing for personal use, and long-distance faxing.

In his report to council, Singh said the regulation changes were a result of “constructive feedback” from students.

Singh added that he and Vice-President External Affairs Rohit Uppal are looking closely at the legal disputes the KSA is facing.

“[Our] current position is to get these disputes dismissed as soon as possible by making sure that it is in the best interest of the society,” Singh said.

In his report, Goyal wrote that he has “been working with Gallivan for scheduling a referendum sometime this year for growing student benefits.”

He said that the amount being claimed by students is higher than what the KSA collects in fees for Gallivan. The avenues being explored, he added, include looking into increasing the current fees or separating the MyLegalPlan into a separate fee.

Ragavan said the KSA is hoping to announce its general election results during the coming week.

The KSA also held an executive committee meeting on Feb. 3, where it approved club funding as well as $18,000 to support students in KPU’s 2026 Brazil field school.

The next KSA council meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27 at 1:00 pm. Interested students can email info@kusa.ca to join the meeting.