Q&A: Meet Drexel’s 2026 USGA President and Vice President

Abir Alikerar and Sadie Subedi. Photo courtesy of Alikerar and Subedi. 

The new Undergraduate Student Government Association (USGA) president and vice president at Drexel University want to see more students at more events on campus, and they have a plan for making it happen. Student Body President Sadie Subedi, law ’27, and Student Body Vice President Abir Alikerar, public health ’27ran on ideas to bring more spirit to Drexel and have spent the summer working on those plans.

Subedi has been involved with USGA since her first year at Drexel, and joined the Civic Engagement committee during her first fall quarter. She’s committed to bringing students a more balanced college experience amidst the hustle of life at Drexel. Subedi is a student in the Thomas R. Kline School of Law’s undergraduate program, serves as a student ambassador and was part of the Drexel Undergraduate Mock Trial Association for three years as both treasurer and team captain. She’s also part of Drexel’s Delta Zeta sorority and works as the sisterhood chair, and is involved with Phi Alpha Delta, a pre-law fraternity.

Alikerar joined USGA towards the end of her first year at Drexel and became involved in the Civic Engagement committee the next year. She is from Philadelphia and was drawn to the committee for its work with the West Philadelphia community. Outside of USGA,

Subedi and Alikerar were elected in April and transitioned into their roles through June. The pair have already worked together on the Civic Engagement committee and look forward to implementing the ideals of student life on campus that they campaigned on.

Here’s what they’re focusing on for the upcoming year.

Q: What was it like taking over as president and vice president?

Sadie Subedi: We were the first team in the past three years with people running against us. It was really interesting, and it definitely prepared me for a lot in life. It was obviously still pretty lighthearted, but it taught me so much about how to handle competitiveness as well as making sure that everything stays very professional.

I personally want to go into politics in the future, so it was a great stepping stone in learning exactly how to format a campaign, even down to the marketing that you’re doing and how you’re approaching the people who you want to trust you. I learned a lot of great lessons throughout the process.

Abir Alikerar: It was a new experience for me. I'm more of a quiet, reserved person, so going up to people individually for most of the campaign week and talking about the things we’re running on was really important. I got to see student inputs and questions and concerns about life on campus, and I thought that experience was important. In the future, we should push to do more in terms of connecting with students either individually or more regularly to get an idea of what students are really worried about.

Something that a lot of students found interesting was a school spirit initiative that Sadie is currently working on, which includes family friendly tailgates before basketball games. A lot of students agreed that they wanted more school spirit.

Q: What are your goals for your tenure?

Subedi: It was really interesting to hear what a lot of different students were concerned about on campus. A lot of students were interested in the late-night bus idea that Abir and I had campaigned on, and providing more resources for students who live off campus but still want to be involved.

We’re definitely still working on our school spirit initiative as well as the late-night buses. Apart from that, we’ve been working a lot on the internal side of USGA and considering combining some of our committees to make sure that we have an efficient amount of progress throughout the school year. We have a new committee called the Student Communication Network, and its main purpose is to make sure we have enough outreach to different organizations and students on campus to make sure we’re getting the feedback students are trying to get to us.

Now that we’re heading into fall quarter, we are really excited to pick back up on our initiatives, and obviously, we still have a lot of civic engagement inside of us, so we want to make sure we’re getting the community involved. We want everybody from all walks of life, all different areas of study to have something they can look forward to.

Alikerar: Something outside of school spirit that we really want to focus on is Academic Transformation [a major University initiative set for the 2027–2028 academic year], now that it’s just a little under a year away. We’re focused on speaking with the administration and the deans of each college and school to get an idea of what students do and don’t know. We want to ease anxieties and increase communication with undergraduate students.

Q: How has your involvement with USGA changed over the years?

Subedi: I had wanted to run for president since I was a freshman. I will never forget the president [Vivek Babu, biological sciences ’24 in his third year in the College of Medicine] we had my first year, because he was not only balancing preparing for med school and taking the MCAT, but he also had a way of leadership that really inspired me to keep working on the initiatives I had ideas about. It seemed like a great balance between enjoying the college experience while making the most of it academically and professionally.

I stayed closely involved with the Civic Engagement committee while also trying to shadow the leadership. I decided around March 2026 that I wanted to run, with the intention of making sure that we can get more balance to the student body. I had seen over the past three years just how strenuous it can be on not only the college experience, but also the students’ mental health when they’re always trying to balance back and forth between co-op and classes.

Alikerar: I had never imagined running for vice president. During the years I was on the Civic Engagement committee, I assumed I would eventually be civic engagement chair for this year. But Sadie approached me and asked me to be her vice president, and I agreed with a lot of the initiatives and campaigns she was running on — specifically, building a sense of community and school spirit, increasing pedestrian safety on campus and so much more. I really wanted to help her bring those initiatives and ideas to life, so I was really excited to work with her.

Q: How does UGSA support student involvement and ensure their ideas are acted on?

Subedi: One initiative that we want student input on is a working dinner between several student organizations where we can all collaborate with each other. It would be a great way not only for students to understand the different resources they have through different clubs on campus, but also for people to meet with each other, especially people they might not typically interact with. It all goes back to community and trying to bring up the spirits of students.

Q: What advice would you share for new students who might be overwhelmed by how to get involved at Drexel and/or with USGA?

Alikerar: Whenever [first-years] come in, everyone says, ‘Go on DragonLink,’ which is true; you should always check DragonLink [the University’s hub for student organizations]. You’ll find a lot of very niche clubs where you can find community. Also, go to Welcome Week, go to as many events as possible. If you’re from the Philadelphia area, try to not only hang out with your high school friends. That was my mistake. I hung out with my friends the whole week, and I didn’t really get to meet new people until my sophomore year. But just go to events whenever you can, with anything that interests you.

Also, check out the Rush Building. There’s the CBC [Center for Black Culture] and, on the second floor, the SCDI [Student Center for Diversity and Inclusion]. There are a lot of study spaces and community collaboration areas where people can meet each other, and that’s a great place to meet your like-minded peers.

Subedi: I also think no one should be scared to go up and talk to people. I regret not going up to random people and asking them what their name was because I was nervous. I’d say just get involved with as many clubs as you may be interested in and then weed them out if you think you might not be able to keep up with them all. Find two, three or four that you really like, just so you can try everything and anything.

I remember not knowing anything about Greek life when I was in high school, but I ended up making some of my greatest friends in my sorority. So try anything, even if it seems like it might not be an obvious fit for you. It can be so overwhelming to go to school, so just try to talk to anyone, because you never know how you’re going to meet your best friends.