$8,000 Raise

14January

2014

find us online / runnermag.ca / twitter.com/runnermag / facebook.com/runnerpaper

Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s independent newspaper since 2009.

KSA approves pay hike for executives

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Masthead03 The Runner January 14 / 2014 W : runnermag.ca

The Runner is student-owned and operated by Kwantlen Polytechnic University students, published under the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society.

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EDITORIAL DIVISONCoordinating Editor / Matt DiMeraeditor@runnermag.ca / 778.565.3803

Deputy Editor / Samantha Thompsondeputy@runnermag.ca

Online Editor / Brian Evancicmedia@runnermag.ca

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Senior News Writer / Samantha Lego

Cover Photo: Mark Stewart

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www.runnermag.caVol. 06, Issue no. 06January 14, 2014ISSN# 1916 8241

The Runner recognises that our work,both in and out of the office, takes place on unceded Coast and Strait Salish territories, specifically the shared traditional territories of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Sto:lo and Tsawwassen First Nations. Our name is inspired by the hun’qumi’num meaning of Kwantlen, which is tireless hunters or tireless runners. Just as Kwantlen is adaptable and changing so is The Runner.

Executive pay hikeIf it’s the lowest paid in the country, [“KSA pro-poses $10,000 raise for execs,” runnermag.ca, Jan. 9] where is the data chart showing the pay levels at other student unions? If someone could post a link to that document that would be great!

Steve LeeFine Arts

Having been on council when we were paid hourly and then it changed to an honourarium based pay I am a bit annoyed that this new board thinks it’s

appropriate (and not a conflict of interest, which it clearly is) to give themselves raises. They have had no more responsibility than they ever had. If an in-crease in pay is needed it is on the rep side. They are the ones who get paid the least. They cannot fully do what is needed of them when they only get maybe $175 a month. If the executives are feeling over-whelmed then they should increase the pay and the responsibilities of the rest of the board.

Jennifer CampbellBusiness

Feedback

The Cheques in the mail

Every year, for as long as our editors can remember, the Kwantlen Student Association has had one item that seems to recur as a topic of discussion on their meeting agenda: how much they get paid. While a few occasions have resulted in the KSA officials re-ducing their pay, more often than not, the conversa-tion results in an increase in pay, This occurred again at last week’s meeting, where they voted to give their executives a nearly 50 per cent pay increase, resulting in $960 bi-weekly paycheques, as of April 1.

While most student officials across the province are doing very important work to provide services to the students on their campuses, there are many in-stances where they are simply overpaid. We are all in favour of students being paid an actual living wage, but there are too many instances of representatives being paid exorbitant amounts to do nothing. It is rare for a student association to have adequate mea-sures in place to hold their representatives account-able to students, and usually those in charge of hold-ing anyone accountable are a part of the exclusive club themselves—fellow executives who want to get paid just as much as their counterparts. It goes a little something like this: “Oh, you haven’t done anything required of you in your job description? That’s okay, I’ll sign your cheque for you anyway, because I really need you to vote in favour of funding my event.”

At the KSA, the representatives have been so intently focused on their own pay that other, more important issues have fallen to the wayside. While

other student unions have been diligently work-ing to leave the Canadian Federation of Students, at Kwantlen, student organizers failed to collect enough signatures to try to leave the national or-ganization this year. The KSA could also have been focusing on rising tuition costs, and better commu-nication with students, but instead they’ve been sit-ting around discussing their wages, every year. Each time they discuss how much they should get paid, there is the underlying fact that they are actually dis-cussing how much they want to get paid.

Student politicians often start out with good inten-tions, but give them a few months in the business and all of a sudden they think they know everything bet-ter than anyone. There is a degree of self-importance that comes with being an elected representative, be-cause they soon figure out that no one else on cam-pus knows, or cares, about what they’re doing. And sadly, they’re right. They walk around like they own the place, but do you even know who they are? What efforts have been made to make sure they wander out of the KSA office to actually meet people on each of our campuses? It is up to us now to let the KSA know that we are paying attention, and that this constant debate on how much they should get paid is not a conversation that needs to happen every single year.

It’s a tricky topic to deal with, because we want the best candidates possible to run for the KSA posi-tions, so that we have the strongest people looking after our student fees and spending the money in a way that benefit us as students. But at the end of the day, it should be up to the membership of the KSA to decide how much our elected officials get paid—not the people who are essentially arbitrarily writ-ing and signing their own cheques.

// //The RunnerEDITORIAL

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NewsThe Runner January 14 / 2014 W : runnermag.ca

KSA executives get $8,000 raises Student association approves 47 per cent pay hike for executive board.

association’s general manager Jeremy McEl-roy who suggested that the executive hours should also be increased to 40. Kumar says that McElroy also checked what other stu-dent unions pay their executives.

McElroy declined several requests to be interviewed.

Button also says that offering free parking to executives, while at the same time urging stu-dents to use the U-Pass, would be inconsistent.

“If we’re not incentivizing our executives to experience what it’s like taking transit down here, then how are they supposed to know what improvements are needed the most?” he asks.

Button says that although the issue of what elected KSA officials are paid seems to recur fairly often, he doesn’t think that it takes away from the other work the student association does.

“It’s going to continue to be a work in progress,” he explains. –with files from Samantha Lego

The Kwantlen Student Association council voted unanimously Friday to hike up their executives’ pay by nearly 50 percent to $24,960 annually.

The four KSA executives will see their annu-al pay jump by more than $8000 starting April 1.

Steven Button, KSA director of student services and the current chair of the executive committee, argues that the changes are neces-sary to reflect the demands put on executives. He says that he originally supported the 60 per cent increase but eventually decided to push for the lower amount.

“The size of the executive portfolios are quite large. They’re not something it can be real-istically expected that anybody could be a full-time student and doing this job,” he explains.

The KSA’s governance committee had originally recommended a 60 per cent increase and other benefits, including free parking passes, and paid medical services plan ben-efits. However at their Jan. 10 meeting, council decided not to approve the extra benefits.

With the pay increase, executives will also be asked to work 40 hours weekly in-stead of the 30 that are currently required.

Button says that the positions are too de-manding to be a full time student, but don’t pay enough to make up for being ineligible for student loans.

“They need to be paid a living wage,” says Button. “Our executive board is the lowest paid of any executive board in — almost the

country — but definitely within B.C. This in-crease still leaves us in the very low-end, but brings us at least a little closer to what other student unions pay their executive boards.”

A cursory online review by The Runner of several other local student unions found at least two executive boards in B.C. who are paid less than the KSA.

Richard Hosein, KSA director of external affairs also supports the increase.

“It’s a high-demand position and if you’re asking executives to split their duties between their school duties and their execu-tive duties, they basically do a half-assed job on both sides,” says Hosein.

“If you’re going to represent students represent them to the fullest.”

No member of council, present at the meeting, spoke against the motion to in-crease executive pay.

In an interview before the meeting, the KSA’s director of finance, Gaurav Kumar, says he originally wanted an annual in-crease of $2,600, but that it was the student

Matt DiMeraCOORDINATING EDITOR

Student politics

// //News04 The Runner January 14 / 2014 W : runnermag.ca

The KPU library is hoping to make fi nals easier on students by keeping their doors open 24-7 during exam season.

The libraries on the Surrey and Rich-mond campus kept their doors open to students from Dec. 9-19. This pilot session acted as a trial run for around-the-clock op-erations in the future.

“Overall, we think the program went real-ly well,” says Kwantlen Polytechnic Univer-sity’s head librarian, Todd Mundle. “There were people in the building at every hour.”

Peak times were from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. “We didn’t really have a target, but when you have more than 100 students or 70-plus students at two in the morning, it’s a good sign,” says Mundle.

According to him, feedback was largely positive. Although two problems that can be worked on before April are access to the second and third fl oors to allow access to quieter study areas and the water fountain.

During the trial run, library services were closed. Only the building was open off ering a “warm, dry safe place to study,” explains Mundle.

The university set aside a budget of $17,000 to cover the two trial periods in De-cember and April. Mundle estimates that keeping both Richmond and Surrey campus libraries open cost around $10,000.

The largest portion of the money was spent on security costs. After receiving re-quests for a later closing time, the library

decided to operate on a 24-hour basis. Mundle says, “We didn’t really want to

be spilling students out of the building at two or three in the morning.”

Headcounts over the two-semester trial period will be used to determine whether having the library open longer is something students want.

“That’s the reality of students these days,” says Mundle, “is that they’re not the nine-to-fi ve Monday to Friday variety anymore, so we have to think about that … It’s just not enough for students these days. They need to have access to the resources.”

Steven Butt on, director of student ser-vices for the Kwantlen Student Association and university senator, says that asking for extended library hours was part of the 2012 senate and board of governors elections campaigns. “It’s always something that I would like to see, [to] have the library hours extended across the board,” he says.

“I think with trial programs like this, we are going to be able to make a bett er case for it in the future.”

In December, the KSA provided coff ee for students using the extended library hours.

For April, Butt on says that with more notice, organizers will be able to bett er plan and advertise.

The KSA has future aspirations of push-ing the 24-hour library back to the two weeks before exam period.

“There will still be people who will say, ‘well do we want to spend the money on that?’” says Butt on. “But no, this looks like it is well used by students, so I was really excited by how well it went.”

Samantha LegoSENIOR NEWS WRITER

Kwantlen

University librarian Todd Mundle. Samantha Lego/The Runner Night owls fi nd

new roost KPU library stays open 24-7 in trial run of extended hours.

Illustration Roland Nguyen/The Runner

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NewsThe Runner January 14 / 2014 W : runnermag.ca

KSA joins alliance of BC students Gains unusual dual membership in provincial student lobbying groups.

at council, as the ABCS currently does not require specific membership fees from each student in order for an organization to be a member. It is the same to leave, so long as the association provides 30 days notice.

One of the biggest conversations the ABCS is still having is in regards to fund-ing. Currently, they are using a costs-shared model, where student groups decide how much they want to contribute, but it is un-certain if this is the model that will be con-tinued. Connelly points out that there will be a minimum amount of money needed each year to ensure the running of the ABCS, to cover insurance and similar expenses.

The ABCS will be having an annual gen-eral meeting in May, where they will likely hammer out some of the finer details of the organization. The main idea, says Connelly, “is to be completely transparent.”

In the meantime, they are looking for-ward to a February campaign called “Trek to the Leg,” where student representatives travel to the B.C. Legislature in Victoria to meet with MLAs. They’ll be bringing a solu-tions-based approach, as Connelly empha-sizes that it is important to express “what students need in a digestible way, to the government.”

On Dec. 4, the Kwantlen Student Association council passed a motion to apply for mem-bership in the Alliance of B.C. Students, and have since become members. The organiza-tion is still in its beginning stages, but it has already gained seven student organizations as members, representing 140,000 students across the province.

“It’s a member-driven organization,” says Colúm Connelly, chairperson of the ABCS.

It came out of a campaign called Where’s the Funding!?, which began in May 2011 and included the student associations of UBC, the University of the Fraser Valley, the University of Victoria, and Capilano Univer-sity. In February 2013 the coalition expand-ed and they adopted their current name of the ABCS, with the goal of advocating for more accessible post-secondary education. This accessibility covers things like public transit, childcare, and creating a debt-free province for students.

“The value for students is there, and there is no obligation to pay the fees as well so it’s a bit of a win-win situation,” says Richard

Hosein, director of external affairs for the KSA. He describes the ABCS as a group that is focused on government lobbying.

“We still want to continue advocating for students outside the [Canadian Federation of Students],” he says.

The ABCS does not require its members to pay any fees in order to join the organiza-tion. In their original constitution it explicitly stated that membership fees would not be collected, but the organization is now seek-ing official society status it is a provision not permitted in a society’s constitution. Connel-ly says that becoming an official society will give it more credibility.

Although the KSA already pays member-ship fees to another provincial organization, the Canadian Federation of Students-BC, Hosein says that the CFS-BC is “ineffective for students,” whereas the KSA’s relation-ship and experience with the ABCS so far has been positive.

According to Hosein, the KSA has been able to participate in campaigns that sought out meetings with MLAs to talk about the future of post-secondary education—and this was before they were even officially members.

Students at Kwantlen have been collect-ing signatures to petition to leave the CFS-BC.

Until the outcome of the petition is known, Kwantlen students will remain members of both organizations. Hosein says, there has been “some animosity” between the KSA and the CFS in the past, and it “seems [the KSA] is neglected on a lot of issues.”

The ABCS is different from other provin-cial lobbying organizations in many ways. According to Connelly, when the student groups came together to create the ABCS, they pulled ideas that they saw working in other organizations, as well as setting out provisions to ensure things they didn’t see as effective wouldn’t repeat themselves in the new organization.

As the ABCS represents students from un-dergraduate, graduate, and trades schools,they are considering implementing caucuses for the different categories of students so that they can discuss what their group needs and raise it with the rest of the group.

One thing the ABCS prides themselves on is what Connelly refers to as an “easy-in, easy-out model,” where it is simple pro-cess to join the ABCS, and to leave. The stu-dent association just has to follow their own organization’s rules in regards to joining a new group, and write a letter to the board of the ABCS. For the KSA, all it took was a vote

Samantha ThompsonDEPUTY EDITOR

Student politics

The Alliance of B.C. Students Societyconference.

Photo courtesy Titus Gregory

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07AdvertisementThe Runner January 14 / 2014 W : runnermag.ca

www.kusa.ca/electionsFor more information on the KSA general election, visit

Chief Returning Officer | Corey Van’t HaaffKwantlen Student Association | Cell: 604.889.5437 | Email: kwantlencro@gmail.com

february 25 – 26, 2014Each voter must show a valid Student ID to receive a ballot

KSAGENERAL

ELECTIONnotic

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Nominations OpenWednesday, January 22, 2014 at 9 AM

Nominations CloseWednesday, February 5, 2014 at 11 AM

General Election PollingTuesday, February 25, 2014 – Wednesday, February 26, 2014

10 AM – 7 PMAll CampusesElection will be held for these positions:

Campus Representatives (4 positions) • Cloverdale Campus Representative (1)• Langley Campus Representative (1)• Richmond Campus Representative (1)• Surrey Campus Representative (1)

Constituency Representatives (7 positions) • Aboriginal Students Representative (1)• International Students Representative (1)• Mature Students Representative (1)• Queer Students Representative (1)• Students of Colour Representative (1)• Students with Disabilities Representative (1)• Women’s Representative (1)

Faculty Representatives (14 positions) • Academic and Career Advancement Representative (1)• Arts Representative (4)• Business Representative (4)• Community and Health Studies Representative (1)• Design Representative (1)• Science and Horticulture Representative (2)• Trades and Technology Representative (1)

www.kusa.ca/electionsFor more information on the KSA general election, visit

Chief Returning Officer | Corey Van’t HaaffKwantlen Student Association | Cell: 604.889.5437 | Email: kwantlencro@gmail.com

Nominations OpenWednesday, January 22, 2014 at 9 AM

Nominations CloseWednesday, February 5, 2014 at 11 AM

Mandatory All Candidates Meeting Friday, February 7, 2014 at 3 PM | Location TBA(Candidates shall not campaign until they attend this meeting or make alternate arrangements with the prior permission of the CRO)

Nomination forms will be available between Wednesday, January 22 at 9 AM and Wednesday, February 5 at 11 AM at the KSA Member

Services office at each campus or online at the KSA web site at www.kusa.ca/elections. Potential candidates are urged to read and

understand the requirements of completing the nomination forms.

If there are questions, they should contact the Chief Returning Officer.

Completed and signed nomination forms must be delivered in hard copy with original signatures (not electronically, by fax or by email)

to the Chief Returning Officer or her delegates by Wednesday, February 5 at 11 AM. No late submissions will be permitted.

For the list of positions to be elected in the KSA general election,

visit www.kusa.ca/elections.

KSAGENERAL

ELECTIONnotic

e of

nomination

february 25 – 26, 201410 AM – 7 PM | All CampusesEach voter must show a valid Student ID to receive a ballot

Horoscope

Your lucky numbers this week are 7, 14, and 21. Your lucky microbe is Saccharomyces pastorianus.

SagittariusNov. 23 - Dec 21

Let your parents know you’re thinking of them by reminding them of how they screwed things up for your generation.

CapricornDec. 22 - Jan 20

Your lucky days are Wednesdays. Your spirit animal is the raccoon—follow where he leads you, regardless of property laws.

AquariusJan 21 - Feb 19

Your spirit animal is the cockroach. Learn from her.

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Save money on groceries this week by foraging for your own food.

AriesMar 21 - Apr 19

Give yourself a raise. A cursory online review shows that you’re the lowest paid at what you do in B.C.

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Studies show that people will like you more if you talk about your poop.

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A new year is a time to try new things. A naked man will offer you a hug this week — take a chance.

CancerJun 21 - Jul 23

The stars say there’s nothing wrong with your butt, so stop asking people.

LeoJul 24 - Aug 23

The most important issue affecting students today is student executive pay, according to student executives.

VirgoAug 24 - Sept 23

You will be happy to learn that sending someone on a one-way ticket to Mars may actually soon be a thing.

LibraSept 24 - Oct 23

When in doubt, “I’m not racist, but” is a great icebreaker.

ScorpioOct 24 - Nov 22

W : runnermag.caThe Runner January 14 / 2014 Procrastination08

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For many strategies, hints and tips, visit www.sudokuwiki.org

If you like Sudoku you’ll really like ‘Str8ts’ and our other puzzles, Apps and books. Visit www.str8ts.com

The solutions will be published here in the next issue.

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