KSA rejects no-fees referendum, changes the rules
September 18, 2008 by Nathalie Heiberg-Harrison
(This article has been corrected in response to comments.)
Kwantlen students would have been able to vote to have all KSA fees reduced to zero if all had gone as planned for Robert Mumford.Â
They won’t get the chance. In response to the former KSAer’s petition for the referendum, a quick amendment to KSA regulations has prevented the idea from ever going on a ballot.Â
Robert Mumford
Mumford proposed a referendum question that, if approved, would have drastically changed the fee system that is now in place and that currently costs a full-time student $43.75 per semester. Under his new fee structure, that would have been reduced to zero. A second proposed referendum question would have asked if students favoured a new fee system that would have directed fees to groups other than the KSA.Â
To have a question appear on a KSA referendum, you must collect 250 signatures from Kwantlen students. Mumford did that, and submitted the petitions to the KSA on Aug. 1. Â
The first referendum question Mumford proposed was that fees for academic and trades students – excluding fees for the health and dental plans, and for the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Federation of Students-BC Component – be reduced to zero.
The second question, which was based on students approving the first one, proposed a $3 per credit fee, with half of that going to the Kwantlen Foundation, one-third going to the Kwantlen Student Life & Development department, and the remainder being split between the Kwantlen Athletics department and the Kwantlen Learning centres.
On Sept. 4, according to minutes from their meeting, the KSAs executive board KSA council rejected Mumford’s petitions, stating that they were “not in order as the changes require specific amendments to the KSA’s bylaws.â€
The board also voted to change its bylaws regulations so that no referendum question can be put forward “(seeking) to increase or decrease existing fees of the Society by more than fifteen percent in any given fiscal year.â€Â
A second change says that referendum questions that direct fees to any organization other then the KSA are not allowed.
Mumford believes his proposals would have resulted in almost no changes in a student’s day-to-day routine.
“I don’t think the students use the KSA for anything except for maybe a free agenda. Most of their events are basically just handouts of free food,†he said.
He noted that most students he spoke to reacted positively to the petition.Â
“One girl said she would go on a date with me [if it went through]…. But basically, the reaction from most students was giggling or laughter,†he said. “They didn’t think it was actually possible to not pay the fee.â€
A spokesperson for the KSA could not be reached for comment.
Hi Nathalie,
I’m sorry no one got back to you for comment. As you know I forwarded the inquiry you submitted to me to Derek and Nathan who were & are more appropriately suited to dealing with this topic. More than likely, I know Derek has been very busy given the announcement of the Federal Election; and Nathan too has been busy assisting our Director of Events with the upcoming Cram Jam concert. As such, I’ll make a few comments here.
Your article covers everything well – but I would note two corrections to the following two paragraphs, where you wrote:
“On Sept. 4, according to minutes from their meeting, the KSAs executive board rejected Mumford’s petitions, stating that they were “not in order as the changes require specific amendments to the KSA’s bylaws.â€
The board also voted to change its bylaws so that no referendum question can be put forward “(seeking) to increase or decrease existing fees of the Society by more than fifteen percent in any given fiscal year.†”
Regarding the first paragraph, it was the KSA’s Council, not the Executive Board who voted to dismiss the petitions that had been submitted. So that people understand why this decision was made (And it was not an easy decision to come to — the petitions and questions were examined closely by the KSA in consultation with its lawyers), essentially, the changes to the fees that the petitions asked for would have had the effect of dissolving the KSA by cutting off its funding. Any question to dissolve the society is not a question that should be dealt with via a referendum.
Regarding the second paragraph, upon the thorough review of the petitions I mentioned above, the KSA decided to consider and adopt amendments to its regulations (but not its bylaws because the KSA Council has no power to make changes to the bylaws – only students can change the bylaws at a General Meeting with at least 250 students in the room and only through a motion that would require 2/3rds of the 250 students in the room to vote in favour of such a motion) to act as guidance for students putting forward petitions as well as to the Director of Operations and the KSA Council.
Finally, in regards to Mumford’s comment — ““I don’t think the students use the KSA for anything except for maybe a free agenda. Most of their events are basically just handouts of free food,†— I would state that more students are using the KSA than ever before. Our student run cafe in Surrey is now turning a profit and everyday the cafe lounge is packed with students using its amenities and enjoying its food. A light liquor license will soon be in place as well. And as reported on in the Chronicle, the open mics in the lounge are also being well received. More clubs are active now than ever before. A number of students have been commenting on the KSA forums. The number of people using BCBookworm is strong. Our Member Services offices are busy and you will start to see new products for sale at these offices in the months to come (we just added Cinemark Tinsletown tickets for $8.50 a ticket alongside the existing Cineplex Odeon tickets). We’ve given away a few hundred tickets and also sold a few hundred tickets to next week’s Cram Jam concert. We’re working hard on making education an issue in this fall’s federal elections and we are working with Kwantlen to organize all candidate debates. We’re working with Kwantlen on plans for a new student union building on the Surrey Campus. We just opened our student lounge and member services office on the Cloverdale Campus. We’re looking at ways to expand in Langley and Richmond and have recently acquired new furniture for the lounges on those campuses. We’ve been archiving our old meeting agendas & minutes, daytimers, budgets, audited statements, letters of recognition and more going back to our inception in 1981 on our website for everyone to access.
So the KSA is working hard for students. And more is being done everyday. Certainly we can always do more for students. But we are certainly much more than just free food.
- Steve Lee, Director of Finance, KSA
I posted the draft minutes from the September 4, 2008 Council meeting where the KSA Council (board of directors) passed motions dismissing the petitions that had been received and adopting the changes to the regulations. They are located here:
http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2380.pdf
Please note that these are draft minutes – they likely will not be amended further but they could be based on feedback received from those in attendance at the meeting. Should that happen, it will happen at our next meeting which is on September 29, 2008 on the Surrey Campus.
- Steve