Get to know your 2026 presidential candidates – The Cougar

The 2026 Student Government Association debate is scheduled to take place on Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. in the Student Center South Theatre. The Cougar conducted screening interviews with all candidates running for the 62nd SGA presidency to inform the student body ahead of the Feb. 17 debate.

The names listed are in alphabetical order.

SGA candidates Biswajit Sarkar and Raj Kabir pose for a photo on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Gillian Wisniewski / The Cougar

Biswajit Sarkar, Md. Raj Kabir

Experience is the main calling card for presidential candidate Biswajit Sarkar and vice presidential candidate Raj Kabir.

Sarkar, a PhD student in information systems, was vice president of the South Asian business community at New York University, where he was an MBA student. Kabir worked in finance consulting and at AT&T before coming to UH, where he is now pursuing a PhD in management information systems.

“People can vote for us for our experiences and ability to negotiate because I did it a couple of times in a couple of events, a couple of years, in different university settings,” Sarkar said.

Both Sarkar and Kabir are also international students. One of their goals is to organize a flagship event for international students to acclimate to the university, like a ‘Passport Day’ that celebrates different cultural cuisines.

“Sometimes it can be the financial or the new curriculum, bond-making, making new friends, but it can be really difficult for them,” Kabir said. “I understand what the international students think about the difficulties they face after coming to their new country. I like to be the voice for international students.”

Sarkar and Kabir also want to reinstitute weekly Wednesday lunches at the A.D. Bruce Religion Center and install microwaves and freezers in the library.

Though the majority of the student population is undergraduate, Sarkar sees being a graduate student as a strength. He believes that the university administration will see PhD students as more credible – and may respond better. 

“The undergrads don’t have a lot of experience and a lot of understanding of how the management works because they are still in the first initial year of their college,” Sarkar said. “So being a mature student, even though I’m so busy with my research work, whenever I see there are a lot of places to work on, I take that position and work for them and serve the community people.”

When it comes to safety, Sarkar and Kabir have not set up policies, but as Kabir said, he can acknowledge the problem.

“There are lots of master’s classes, finished at nine o’clock, so it’s totally dark,” Kabir said. “Some of the international students I talk to say they feel nervous when they go to the parking lot. We have to work on this so that they really feel safe.”

SGA candidates Joshua Sambrano and Lundan Sherrod pose for a photo on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez / The Cougar

Joshua Sambrano, Lundan Sherrod

Presidential candidate Joshua Sambrano, a public policy junior, and vice presidential candidate Lundan Sherrod, an economics junior, are focused on policy that gives a platform to student voices while upholding new standards for the 62nd SGA administration.

Sambrano is the lead organizer of Get Back SFAC, a student-run organization at UH who questioned UH’s method of appointing students to the Student Fee Advisory Committee that recommends how student fees should be spent. 

Both candidates outlined several policy priorities, including public safety measures, expanded student resources and affordability initiatives.

They are both focused on connecting the student body directly with University leadership. Sambrano cites his own experiences with SGA when he first arrived at UH in 2024 as a foundation for the policies they will advocate for.

“There was a lot of disconnect between voters and the people we elect into office,” Sambrano said. “The more I learned about what was happening within UH’s SGA, the more I wanted to be involved in helping close that gap.”

The pair highlighted that existing safety programs, such as campus police escorts, are not made fully aware to students.

“The biggest problem isn’t necessarily that services don’t exist,” Sambrano said. “It’s that there’s not enough marketing and infrastructure to promote them.” 

Sambrano and Sherrod aim to target this issue by utilizing their platform as SGA leaders to inform students about existing safety resources, as well as use funding from SFAC for promotional materials.

The pair also underscored the importance of students having access to a variety of food options that reflect the diverse student body. They pointed to expanding halal, kosher and other dietary accommodations as a potential focus.

“I think a lot of students are invested in seeing better things here. I’m thinking we can work with organizations on campus that have already been pushing for things like this,” Sambrano said.

Health and wellness resources for students is another issue they want to tackle. The duo said they want to model a program used at the University of Texas at Austin that provides free menstrual products through student fees funding.

Sambrano and Sherrod’s main priorities are to allow students to be involved in nearly every action taken by the university, promoting values of transparency and accountability for the new SGA.

“It’s a priority for us to say we’re going to do something and be able to do it, even if it’s not perfect. Of course we’re going to make mistakes, and not everything is going to be a perfect slate,” Sherrod said. “Our main mission is that we’re going to be honest and to do what we say we are going to do.”

SGA candidates Kyra Williams and Sukaina Rizvi pose for a photo on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez / The Cougar

Kyra Williams, Sukaina Rizvi

Presidential candidate Kyra Williams, a political science freshman, and vice presidential candidate Sukaina Rizvi, an environmental design sophomore, believe they can make a difference for students at UH. 

Williams has four years of experience as the vice president of her high school, and Rizvi is currently a member of UH’s debate team. 

Their campaign developed when the pool tables at Moody Towers were supposed to be fixed by spring 2026, only for residents to still be waiting for an update in February. Williams and Rizvi became the de facto leaders of getting answers from UH staff. 

“It really started with our friends being like, ‘When’s pool coming back?’ which turned into a community issue where now everyone in the South and the North tower were fighting to get pool back,” said Williams. 

The issue prompted them to investigate broader communication concerns between UH staff and students. Rizvi points to this as a main concern for not only them, but the entire UH community. 

“We want to be the opposite of UH staff,” Rizvi said. “Because the whole complaint is that they’re not listening. It would be hypocritical of us to do the exact same thing.” 

Williams and Rizvi want to bridge this gap by creating a mentorship program where upperclassmen can support underclassmen by providing resources and information to guide them throughout their time at UH. 

If UH cannot streamline better communication with its students, Williams and Rizvi want the SGA to be that lifeline, either by expanding communication efforts virtually through an app or meetings. 

Both of them want to make SGA more visible to students by stepping away from the traditional forums and hosting fun, engaging events on campus. One of their plans is to possibly rent out the game room, where students can engage with their peers informally while also creating a space where students feel comfortable sharing their concerns. 

Among their other campaign goals is safety and transparency. Rizvi suggested looking into the emergency call boxes on campus to make sure they are more accessible to students. Regarding campus lighting, Williams feels like there are still some spots on campus that need a lamp post, and their goal is to fill in those gaps. 

“We want to better the lives of the people who are coming after us,” Williams said. “For people who have younger siblings or friends from high school who want to come to this school. I want their experiences (at UH) to be better than ours.”

SGA candidates Tav Cockrell and Ian Kariuki pose for a photo on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez / The Cougar

Tav Cockrell, Ian Kariuki

Presidential candidate Tav Cockrell and vice presidential candidate Ian Kariuki have their eyes set on the 62nd SGA administration. 

Cockrell, an architecture and psychology senior, served as the Speaker of the Senate during SGA’s 61st administration while Kariuki, a public policy and political science junior, is the founder of UH Gents and serves as the Vice President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Accessibility, sustainability and academics are the primary focus of their campaign. The pair decided to run for the administration to become advocates for change and be the first ones to make an initiative. 

“I know for a fact that myself and Ian, we’re very experienced when it comes to leadership on this campus and University policy,” Cockrell said. “Being immersed in that environment, we understand the environment and know how to make an actionable impact.”

To accomplish their goal, they want to focus on initiatives that can be completed or started within a year. One of the issues they want to tackle is securing sufficient academic advisors for students in each college, highlighting that every student deserves high-quality services. 

“If students are not having equitable access or ease of access to those services, then they’re going to get frustrated, and that’s going to deter them from either coming here in the first place or staying at UH,” Cockrell said. “There’s a large reason why UH does not have the best alumni relations.”

Cockrell and Kariuki also want to push for transparency and involvement of students in University decisions, especially when it comes to where student fees are spent. 

Other initiatives will include integration of artificial intelligence, post-college career success and improving alumni connections.

Under the sustainability pillar, Cockrell and Kariuki want to focus on improving the overall quality of campus life, adding more eating options on campus, increasing police presence during nighttime and installing metal detectors. As for parking and transportation stability, they want to improve the shuttle services and the usage of the UH Go app. 

Both candidates want to change SGA and how it operated in the past, pulling from their experiences in not just student government affairs but also their leadership roles in various student-run organizations on campus. 

“Another thing that’s big to us is that we think student representation does not have to come in the form of a big victory lap,” Cockrell said. “A huge vision that we want to take into SGA is continuity of the office. We want people to know that when you come into SGA and you start something, even if you don’t finish it, you can set the groundwork for the next person to come in and pick it up.”

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