Devaki Mathivanan on Petition for PIPS Dissolution
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/10/11
There is a petition to dissolve PIPS, which is associated with PULP Mag and The Runner. Devaki Mathivanan describes the petition’s lack of reasoning, suspicious student signatures, and concerns over conflicts of interest. PIPS decided not to take formal action, and there have been no significant responses from students or organizations. Mathivanan is the Operations Manager of the Polytechnic Ink Publishing Society. The Editor-in-Chief, Claudia Culley, of The Runner was interviewed, recently.
The case has been covered by Mornings with Simi, The Runner (also here), the Vancouver Sun, and MSN. PIPS is the umbrella organization for Pulp MAG and The Runner. Kwantlen Student Association: KSA is a non-profit organization incorporated under the Society Act, independent of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. This narrative begins with reportage on activities of the KSA by the staff of The Runner, with the public chapter beginning with a petition.
The current Kwantlen Student Association[1] Executives:
KSA Executives
- Yashanpreet Guron – President & Vice President of Student Life
- Yugveer Gill – Vice President of University Affairs
- Paramvir Singh – Vice President External Affairs
- Simranjot Sekhon – Vice President Finance & Operations
- Ishant Goyal – Associate President
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So today, we’re here with Devaki Mathivanan. When you received the petition for the dissolution of PIPS, a group associated with PULP Mag and The Runner, the student newspaper, what were your initial impressions of this petition?
Devaki Mathivanan: The first thing that came to mind was why PIPS needs to be dissolved. The petition didn’t provide any reason for the dissolution. When a society is dissolved, something significant usually is to seek a petition. But this petition came out of nowhere, and we did not understand the reason behind the dissolving of society so suddenly.
The society was functioning well, the autonomy agreement was in place, and we followed the bylaws. Everything that needed to happen within the society was happening. So, initially, we thought there was a hidden motive. Someone didn’t like our reporting, so we received this petition. Those were our first thoughts. Later, we decided to verify the status of the students who had signed the petition.
Jacobsen: What surprised you during the process of verifying the students?
Mathivanan: Initially, whenever we needed to verify a student’s status, we asked for the student’s enrollment status and confirmation. But we couldn’t do that this time, so we contacted KPU to verify the students. Although the petition claimed 150 signatures, we found a series of discrepancies. Many student IDs were invalid, some names were incorrect, and in some cases, the student names and IDs didn’t match. We also found duplicate entries, where the same student had signed their name at the front of the petition and again at the back.
Additionally, many signatures appeared to be written in the same handwriting. While the name, student ID, and signature were correct, the handwriting looked suspiciously similar. We investigated further to understand why students had signed. We wanted to see if they had consented, read, and understood what they were signing. A few students said they needed to know the petition’s content. They signed it because they knew the person asking for signatures, and we believe peer pressure played a large role in this.
Some students said they were promised a trip to Cultus Lake, while others mentioned KSA-related meetings. Interestingly, we have yet to encounter a student who genuinely wanted to dissolve society.
None of the students we spoke with knew the petition’s content. This confirmed our suspicions that there was an ulterior motive behind the petition. We also learned that one of the student-elected senate members was collecting signatures for the petition. According to the PIPS bylaws at KPU, any student holding an elected position is ineligible to be a member of the society. We considered this a direct violation, so we decided not to hold an FGM for this petition. Instead, we shared our findings with the student who had submitted the petition.
This was the background of the petition we received and how we validated our concerns.
Jacobsen: Now, what about the requests in the petition? What were the particulars and the overarching thrust of the demands?
Mathivanan: Yes, the main request was for the society’s dissolution. Another significant point was the removal or deletion of Bylaw 11, which outlines the fourth state of independence. This bylaw allows any student union member or KPU official to serve on the board of PIPS and be a staff member of The Runner or PULP Mag. Removing this would impact how the publications function.
Additionally, they wanted to remove all articles related to the Kwantlen Student Association (KSA). The petition requested that all KSA-related content be removed from online platforms and printed materials.
Another demand was removing the current board members from the council, followed by a new election to appoint fresh board members. These were the primary contents of the petition.
Jacobsen: Even the mismatch between student IDs and names, invalid student IDs, and concerns about a conflict of interest with an elected KSA member collecting signatures for the petition, what has PIPS decided to do with the petition?
Mathivanan: Yes, we didn’t take any formal action. That’s what we decided, and our board agreed. We didn’t pursue any further action. Instead, we documented everything that happened and kept a record of all the details. However, since only one student emailed us, we needed more resources or support to investigate all 150 students involved or find out who was working behind the petition.
As such, we have yet to decide on any specific action to address the mismatches or discrepancies, apart from questioning why it was handled this way.
Jacobsen: Has there been any response from the student body or student association regarding PIPS’ decision not to proceed with the petition to dissolve?
Mathivanan: No, we haven’t received any comments from anyone about it. We spoke with KPU officials, who said they would assist if we decided to hold a Special General Meeting (SGM). Still, apart from that, we have yet to hear from any student body or organization regarding the petition. You’ve already mentioned it in your story.
We have covered this in a story, explaining that we received the petition and detailed what happened. Still, we haven’t heard anything from anyone about the petition or the decision not to hold an SGM.
Jacobsen: Students only pay 75 cents per credit to participate in or contribute to PIPS. Have you received any emails or complaints from students regarding this 75-cent contribution per credit?
Mathivanan: None, absolutely none. Students can opt-out and get a refund for the publication fees they pay.
We hardly receive requests to opt-out or get a refund for the publication fee. In the last fiscal year, we received only one opt-out request. We refunded, I think, about five dollars to that student.
That’s all we had last year, so we rarely receive requests for refunds. We have an option available if students want to opt out, but to the best of my knowledge, we haven’t received any complaints from students so far.
Jacobsen: Are there any parts of this story that haven’t been sufficiently covered in public reporting—whether in theVancouver Sun, Richmond News, or the little bits I’ve worked on? Are there any developments that should be added to this particular story?
Mathivanan: Everything regarding the petition has been covered. So, yeah.
Jacobsen: Excellent. Devaki, thank you very much for your time.
Mathivanan: Yeah, okay. Thank you. Thank you so much for meeting and writing a story supporting us.
It’s been a wonderful, overwhelming experience, especially when a student newspaper is affected. Receiving this kind of support means a lot. Thank you so much.
Jacobsen: You’re welcome. Take care. Bye-bye.
Mathivanan: Yeah, bye-bye.
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[1] Full listing:
KSA Executives
- Yashanpreet Guron – President & Vice President Student Life
- Yugveer Gill – Vice President University Affairs
- Paramvir Singh – Vice President External Affairs
- Simranjot Sekhon – Vice President Finance & Operations
- Ishant Goyal – Associate President
Campus Representatives
- Abhijeet Singh – Civic Plaza Campus Representative
- Yashanpreet Guron – Cloverdale Campus Representative
- Jashanpreet Singh Sekhon – Langley Campus Representative
- Nitin Aggarwal – Richmond Campus Representative
- Simranjeet Singh – Surrey Campus Representative
Constituency Representatives
- Paramvir Singh – International Students Representative
- Jaskaran Sohal – Mature Students Representative
- Arnav Grover – Queer Students Representative
- Ishant Goyal – Students of Color Representative
- Lesli Sangha – Students with Disabilities Representative
- Suhana Gill – Women’s Representative
Faculty Representatives
- Jasmine Kaur Kochhar – Faculty of Arts Representatives
- Yugveer Gill – Faculty of Arts Representatives
- Dishika Gour – Faculty of Arts Representatives
- Nishant Kapoor – Faculty of Business Representatives
- Simranjot Sekhon – Faculty of Business Representatives
- Keerat Goyal – Faculty of Business Representatives
- Yuvraj Bains – Faculty of Business Representatives
- Harpal Singh (Pala) – Faculty of Business Representatives
- Bhoomika Seera – Faculty of Science and Horticulture Representatives
- Ranveer Singh – Faculty of Science and Horticulture Representatives
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