One of SGA presidential candidate’s Abraham Arackathazhath’s plans is to increase the University’s amount of cultural activities held at UH. | Kathryn Lenihan/The Cougar
SGA presidential candidate and public health junior Abraham Arackathazhath is running to better campus safety and elevate UH’s diversity.
“I wanted to run for president to make sure that I keep this campus safe, especially the students,” Arackathazhath said, who is a part of the YouH party.
His freshman year, Arackathazhath was on SGA’s health policy committee, and for the last two years, he’s been part of the orientation team. His plan as president would be to bring increased safety and cultural inclusion to the University.
Arackathazhath said since UH is a school with many commuters, it can sometimes be a difficult task to get students involved on campus. However, he plans to solve that by increasing cultural activities on campus.
“We want to explore diversity, and we want to do all sorts of activities to make sure we include all sorts of cultures,” Arackathazhath said.
The candidate’s stance on campus safety came about when a robbery hit too close to home.
“A few months ago, my friend got robbed at gunpoint next to his car when he was going home,” Arackathazhath said. “It was my best friend, and just knowing he got robbed on campus, especially my favorite campus that I’ve been on for more than three years now, that made me push forward and recognize what the issues on this campus are.”
Although there is a chance to feel unsafe on any college campus, Arackathazhath thinks he has the right plan to make UH students feel safer. His party has discussed having UH establish a safety team on campus as a start, but further plans are going to be discussed, he said.
“I know that we have UH police on campus, but I feel like having a safety team or something, [would] provide the students with the feeling that they’re in a safe space,” Arackathazhath said. “Especially in parking lot areas and when we’re going outside of campus. I want to propose a bill where we make sure that they’re safe.”
Arackathazhath encourages students to come up and talk to him about issues they may have on campus. He loves attending the University and living in Houston, something he thinks would help him in his presidency if he were elected.
“Honestly, I love the students here and everybody in the city of Houston is nice,” Arackathazhath said. “All of the professors here are amazing and really nice. If you need help, then they’ll help you.”
