The Student Government Association holds elections each spring semester for the following academic year’s president, vice president and college-specific senators.
Voting for SGA’s 55th Administration begins at midnight on Tuesday and lasts through 11:59 p.m. Thursday. Voting will take place entirely online via the Get Involved app within AccessUH.
Students can vote for one executive team, which includes a president and vice president from the same party, and a limited number of senators for their colleges.
MENU:
President/Vice President Tickets
Undergraduate Senators-at-Large
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture & Design
C. T. Bauer College of Business
President/Vice President Tickets
Students may select one presidential ticket. This race is open to all students.
Cameron Barrett & Davis Mendoza Darusman, Students Unite
- Affordable textbooks
- Growing involvement
- Safer campus for all
Barrett’s platform: “I want to help working class students. I believe things like a textbook exchange, housing vouchers, and meal transfers would help students in poverty greatly.”
Christopher Caldwell & Matthew Stell, Impact Party
- Improve student experience
- Foster academic success
- Promote community advancement
Vishaal Kuruvanka & Chukwuma Osuji, Element Red
- Better prices
- Better services
- Better democracy
Kuruvanka’s platform: “I want to bring more academic opportunities for our students to give them an edge in the job market. Students don’t feel safe on campus and that’s something that SGA can fix.”
Osuji’s platform: “Increase student participation with SGA, improved security measures and cooperation with other industries.”
Alexander McCollum & Tyrone Bennett, ReformUH
- Expanded parking
- Organizational funding
- Increased security
Chris Yellowe & Shatia Kye, Coogsnited
Engage students in organizations
Winni Zhang (Incumbent) & True Furrh, Spirit Red
- Better parking
- Better health services
- Better advising
Undergraduate Senators-at-Large
Four seats are available in this race, which is open to all undergraduate students.
Valentin Perez: Textbook prices, transparency, student engagement
Party: Independent
Platform: “I want to change the culture of SGA. From it being an elitist group to something students can actually join without having to have deep connections inside the organization. For Bauer College of Business, I want to focus on working with faculty to find cheaper textbooks for students to use.”
Sara Rehman (current CLASS senator)
Party: Spirit RED
Platform: “I am running on the platform to promote and ensure campus sexual assault and campus safety. I believe that sexual harassment and assault/ campus safety are issues that need to addressed on all levels at the University of Houston (administration, faculty, staff and students).”
Raihan Siddiqui
Party: Independent
Platform: “My focus is greater resource availability and awareness. UH should not only meet the standards of other universities, but set standards that need to matched. A 24-hour library and extended-hours Recreation Center are part of this vision. I’m also pushing for a greater focus on CAPS, which is critical in maintaining mental health.”
Barik Chaudry
Party: ReformUH
Platform: “I want to be a bridge between the student body and the SGA so that the issues that everyday students face are finally heard, because at the end of the day, we’re all Cougars, and we all have to look out for each other.”
Andrew Teoh
Party: Spirit RED
Platform: “I will advocate for alleviating the stress of parking, hiring more academic advisers, and investing in our health services. I will continue my work to connect students to University Career Services and improve inter-department coordination for Title IX cases.”
Claude Johnson
Party: Impact Party
Farah Islam
Party: Impact Party
Savannah Heistad
Party: Impact Party
Maryam Baldawi
Party: Independent
Caleb Paul Deering
Party: ReformUH
April Alex
Party: Spirit RED
Andrew Trinh
Party: Students Unite
Bo Harricharran
Party: Students Unite
Kim-Briana Lorine
Party: Students Unite
Graduate Senators-at-Large
Two seats are available in this race, which is open to all graduate students.
Cassandra Butcher
Party: ReformUH
Platform: “My goal is to create a strong voice for graduate students. Often times graduate students are not thought of, because their classes are at night. I would like to make it where graduate students are thought of as much as undergraduate students.”
Stephanie Gómez
Party: Students Unite
College of the Arts Senator
One seat is available in this race.
Niza Garcia
Party: Independent
Platform: “My biggest initiatives would be to unify the individual schools within the college, increase awareness and collaboration between our college and other non-art majors, and most of all listen to my fellow classmates through monthly town halls where staff and students can attend and speak at to share their ideas on their vision for the future of our college.”
Ethan Adkison
Party: Students Unite
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture & Design Senator
One seat is available in this race.
Jaylyn McGuire
Party: Impact Party
Devon Bush
Party: Students Unite
C. T. Bauer College of Business Senators
Four seats are available in this race.
Arjun Saravanan
Party: Element Red
Platform: “I strive to make student voice our No. 1 priority and to make sure opportunities are extended to everyone. Developing our capabilities by reaching out to the next generation of companies, fostering a functional collaboration with our alumni association to create a robust network within Bauer and more.”
Varun Maheshwari
Party: Element Red
Platform: “My platform for SGA is to increase financial transparency and accountability of policies. For Bauer, it is to increase collaboration among student organizations as well as the administration. Making academic advising simpler and partnering the Rockwell Career Center with organizations and active alumni is also a priority. For UH, I want to increase security measures and establish volunteer programs with UHPD.”
Andrew Blanchard
Party: Impact Party
Erika Jacobs
Party: Impact Party
Tomer Downing
Party: Impact Party
Alex Smith
Party: ReformUH
Garrett Gowe
Party: Spirit RED
Hannah Ajrami
Party: Spirit RED
Jonelle Martinez
Party: Spirit RED
Divvya Seernani
Party: Students Unite
Kobe Terrier
Party: Students Unite
Md Akil
Party: Students Unite
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Senators
Seven seats are available in this race.
Carlos Uribe
Party: Element RED
Platform: “Allow for students to become more engaged and informed about their Student Government. Increase CLASS involvement with surrounding communities through different outreach projects. Develop stronger alumni network within the college and the university. Focus on participating in extracurricular organizations within the college to help with college visibility, students acquiring leadership experience, and overall student success. Improve how university resources cater to a diverse college like CLASS.”
Azali Jeffrey
Party: Spirit RED
Platform: “I plan to work with CLASS Ambassadors to create an internship/ volunteer system for students. It is essential to give back to our community and bring a sense of unity to such a large college. Internships will allow students to gain real world experience while furthering their education.”
Nino Dardell Shishe-Johnson
Party: Spirit RED
Platform: “My main goal as senator for CLASS would be to be as available as possible in the sense that I’m consistently ready to absorb and relay messages of all sorts. I wish to fight for better protection of diversity on campus and tackle the issue of adviser accessibility.”
Benigno Solis
Party: Independent
Platform: “As CLASS senator, I plan to improve the quality of classrooms, adviser accessibility, and the overall quality of life for everyone in CLASS.”
Tris Pedro
Party: Students Unite
Platform: “My main goal would be to improve campus experience for commuter students. As a commuter myself, I have experienced the problems commuters face firsthand and will work on addressing these problems to the best of my ability. Among these problems is the inability of commuters to easily nap or relax on campus.”
Salih Jabbar
Party: Coogsnited
Diego Garcia
Party: Impact Party
Ines Esponda
Party: Impact Party
Abraham Arackathazhath
Party: Independent
Allison Lawrence
Party: Independent
John Douglas
Party: Impact Party
Arnaud Kwimy
Party: ReformUH
Crescencio Segurareyna
Party: ReformUH
Darren Campbell
Party: ReformUH
Peng Liu
Party: ReformUH
Irina Alejandro
Party: Spirit RED
Kimmy Mota
Party: Spirit RED
Lauren Gatmaitan
Party: Spirit RED
Jazzib Akhtar
Party: Students Unite
Marcela Marin
Party: Students Unite
Moiz Syed
Party: Students Unite
Gabe Aguilar
Party: Students Unite
College of Education Senators
Two seats are available in this race.
Amanda Caceres
Party: Students Unite
Platform: “To make more (students) aware the benefits the Education College offers, create more of a community within the college, and help lower income/ homeless students at UH.”
Ebony Smith
Party: Impact Party
Natasha Pearl
Party: Independent
Christopher Zuniga
Party: ReformUH
Vi Pham
Party: Spirit RED
Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management Senator
One seat is available in this race.
Jules Vicklund
Party: Students Unite
Platform: “My goal is to grab the attention of HRM students to encourage them to branch out and join into more University-based organizations.”
Ashley Garcia
Party: Spirit RED
Cullen College of Engineering Senators
Three seats are available in this race.
Aristides Beltran
Party: Element Red
Ariel Abudu
Party: Impact Party
Madison Myers
Party: Impact Party
Sofiane Dahmane
Party: Independent
Marc Alozie
Party: ReformUH
Valerie Ayala-Sachango
Party: ReformUH
Kanian Khan
Party: Spirit RED
Olivia Kuligowski
Party: Spirit RED
Maite Albarran
Party: Students Unite
Shegufta Upama
Party: Students Unite
Graduate College of Social Work Senator
One seat is available in this race.
Emily Joslin
Party: Students Unite
The Honors College Senator
One seat is available in this race.
Lida Hedayatpour
Party: Element Red
Platform: “I am focused on three specific goals. 1. More effective communication between UHPD and the student body. I propose a system that allows students to call on a security guard or officer to escort them to their respective destinations at night. 2. Fast and reliable WiFi access throughout campus. 3. Increasing the accessibility of important lifestyle items through vending machine distribution. This can include condoms, pads, tampons and toiletries.”
Elnora Awatt
Party: Impact Party
Melody Valadez
Party: Independent
Hannah Ho
Party: Spirit RED
Tammy Chang
Party: Students Unite
Law Center Senator
One seat is available in this race.
Jerry Marvel III
Party: Independent
Platform: “Students are making a significant financial investment when they decide to attend the UH Law Center, and Student Services Fees are a part of that. I want to make sure that the money law students are required to contribute to SGA is being spent wisely. Aside from that, most of my classmates want better parking and food options near the Law Center, since our schedules often don’t allow us to venture too far into other parts of campus.”
College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Senators
Four seats are available in this race.
Neha Daga
Party: Element Red
Platform: “I want to broaden NSM’s scope beyond just campus opportunities. Being a pre-med student, I believe having experience in the real world is important, which is why a major initiative I want to bring to SGA is to build a strong relationship with the Texas Medical Center so students from UH can have research and internship opportunities.”
Sophia Vargas
Party: Element Red
Platform: “My goals and focus for this election are improving advising, as most NSM students have issues with this specifically. I also hope to improve connections with the Texas Medical Center for NSM students looking for research experience. I personally acquired my internship through the University and would like to help others.”
Joan Yu
Party: Spirit RED
Platform: “I want to be able to help foster a strong sense of community, promote opportunities for women in STEM, and help create an avenue for research opportunities within the NSM college for undergraduates.”
Tasnuva Haider
Party: Spirit RED
Platform: “I want to paint a reality of making our University experience incredible. My ambition is to reduce stress among students and connect students to opportunities related to their major. As an active member of several NSM organizations, my primary goal is to ensure students’ concerns are not only heard, but also resolved when elected for the senate position.”
Alexander Ponce De Leon
Party: Impact Party
Dion Birhiray
Party: Impact Party
Leonard Chambers II
Party: Impact Party
Kal Dwivedi
Party: Independent
Sandy Berger
Party: Spirit RED
Isabel Pen
Party: Students Unite
Tanooha Veeramachaneni
Party: Students Unite
Tomas Bryan
Party: Students Unite
College of Nursing Senator
One seat is available in this race.
No candidates are running for the College of Nursing senate seat.
College of Optometry Senator
One seat is available in this race.
No candidates are running for the College of Optometry senate seat.
College of Pharmacy Senator
One seat is available in this race.
Nardos Estifanos
Party: Independent
College of Technology Senators
Four seats are available in this race.
Alex Albiso
Party: Students Unite
Platform: “I have three goals for the College of Technology: make the move to Sugar Land more transparent, create a library in the College of Technology for textbooks and set up degree plans to help students easily adjust between Sugar Land and main campus courses.”
Dane Herbert
Party: Coogsnited
Imani Quarzaza
Party: Coogsnited
William Goma
Party: Element Red
Abiodun Ogunwomoju
Party: Impact Party
Melissa Flores
Party: Impact Party
Samuella Koxyn
Party: Independent
Platform: “I wish to make learning for technology students better by trying to get better resources and more great teachers for the different programs in the technology department. I wish to do this so that having classes split at two different campuses could be improved or just hopefully not needed at all.”
Alexander Santos Duvall
Party: ReformUH
Autumn Kelly
Party: ReformUH
Joel Eguiza
Party: Spirit RED
Stephanie Carrillo
Party: Students Unite
Sterling White
Party: Students Unite
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“SGA Election 2018 Voting Guide: Be informed when you vote” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar