Spencer Higgins

Spencer Higgins was the unsuccessful Student Focus Candidate for ASUCD President in the Winter 2007 ASUCD Election, losing by nearly 2,000 votes (but getting more than double Rob "Don't Vote for Me" Roy's total). He will be interning for the Bush Administration during the Fall quarter of 2007.

Spencer was an Academic Affairs Commission member, Theta Xi Philanthropy Chair, and an ASUCD intern before being elected to ASUCD Senate in the Fall 2005 ASUCD Election from the Student Focus slate. Higgins was also an intern for Governor Schwarzenegger in 2006. Higgins lost in his Independent Senate bid in the Fall of 2004 in the 6th round.

Spencer advised Mitty Chang to form a Yearbook Facebook to gain support for the project.

June 2008 City Council

A group of students are trying to "draft" Spencer to run for City Council in 2008. It is currently a closed group. The draft is chaired by Wenche Molenaar for the month of July. The Facebook can be found here.

The group was unsuccessful in its attempts to persuade Spencer Higgins to run for City Council, he told them no.

A Haiku About Spencer

The Spencer Higgins Warrior of light and wind Show us happiness

-J. Bleckman

Coffee House Controversy

A video where he and Tiny Sanders argue that increases to both coffee house wages and to ASUCD stipends will only cost ASUCD $10,000. While former ASUCD Controller and Student Focus Campaign manager Kai Savaree-Ruess stood by these figures, Paul Harms, later appointed ASUCD Controller, and CoHo management proved these figures to be tens of thousands of dollars off; please see here for more of Paul Harms' info: HarmsAnalysis.xls. Notes on this analysis by Paul Harms are also provided below in the comments section.

The employee discounts proposed could reduce income or raise costs (depending on how they would be budgeted) by at least $5,000, assuming that 1,000 ASUCD employees would save $5 per year through employee discounts.

ASUCD Presidential Forum Videos

Video of/about ?
Video of/about ?
Spencer commits all Focus candidates elected (Molly and Cem) to personally outreach to different club every week
Video of/about ?
(videos deleted by Steve Ostrowski)

Winter 2007 Candidate Statement

My Fellow Students,

ASUCD needs an overhaul. For too long the students have been neglected, the general population underrepresented and too long has our money been misspent and perverted. Our budget is sporadic and inefficient; it needs to be taken in an entirely new direction. More money needs to be distributed to campus clubs, organizations and students’ hands.

As ASUCD President, I will give more money back to students through services, entertainment and cash. I propose wage increases, discounts for student employees and more money for Club Finance Council. I will work to reinvigorate on campus entertainment and will work for more student outreach and advocacy.

I want to do these things because we deserve it. We, as students of UCDavis, deserve a student government that gives back. We deserve to leave this school knowing that these were the best years of our lives. We are proud, We are Aggies!

On February 21, vote for the party that will make you be proud to be an Aggie, Vote Student Focus.

It’s Time for Change,

Spencer Higgins

ASUCD President

Fall 2005 Candidate Statement

What's up everybody?!!! My name is SPENCER HIGGINS and I'm running for Senate on the STUDENT FOCUS slate. I'm a second year double major in International Relations and Economics. My on campus experience consists of:

ASUCD Academic Affairs Commission
Theta Xi Philanthropy Chair
ASUCD Senate Intern

Those are the reasons why I am qualified to run for ASUCD Senate. These are some of the things I want to do:

More fun on campus!

Concerts and Movie premieres!
Keeping Aggie Pack Alive

Better Savings

"Roll over Pages" - where your left over campus printing pages roll over until the end of each quarter!

Expanding UCD

Creation of a Publicity Committee
Creation of a Business Major

TOGETHER WE CAN GET THINGS DONE! So don't forget to vote November 16th and 17th at elections.ucdavis.edu for SPENCER HIGGINS and the rest of the wonderful STUDENT FOCUS slate.

Campaign Promises and Record as Senator

Concerts and Movie premieres: Not achieved (campus cinema still defunct)
Keeping Aggie Pack Alive: Achieved status quo funding as opposed to cuts, by managing to save them from being purged during budget hearings
"Roll over Pages": Not achieved
Creation of a Publicity Committee: Not achieved
Creation of a Business Major: Not achieved
The bill, 2006-2007 ASUCD Senate Bill #9, to give ASUCD funding to host a paint ball competition as a Theta Xi philanthropy event, this bill has vanished from all records, it was withdrawn before consideration.
The only other bill he wrote as a Senator was to fund porta-potties by the Marya Welch Tennis Center.

Comments:

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"I didn't advise mitty to create a yearbook, i just helped him out with information regarding our previous yearbook. His goal was to bring back a yearbook." -SpencerHiggins

Former intern/assistant to two ASUCD Controllers and four-time LEAD campaign treasurer Paul Harms calculates the cost to be $59,400 ($59,433.06 to be more exact, calculated with a $0.25/hr raise for all CoHo employees and a raise of one pay scale for all 100 ASUCD non-aggie employees on stipend pay, excluding the external secretary, a position likely to be cut. This includes employee benefits of 2.79% and assumes that working hours budgeted at the CoHo remain constant at 124,349 per year from FY2006-2007.) The Coffee House management also independently verified Paul's calculations for the proposed CoHo wage increase, which alone would cost $31,954.58. The detailed calculations, in MS Excel Spreadsheets, are available on request; please contact Paul at [email protected].

2007-02-19 10:19:46 There are, of course, two ways they could make their wage/stipend increase proposal cost only $10,000. Unfortunately, both ways are ridiculous. First, the raises could be so minimal and insignificant (to the tune of an extra dollar per week) that, added together, they only cost $10,000. The second and really scary possibility is that they plan to invent $50,000 in income to offset the $60,000 cost of wage increases. Well, actually, they'd have to invent $80,000 in income to do this, since we are guaranteed to lose $30,000 in income in the next budget. Such an invention (what I like to call BUDGET LIES, used extensively by the last Student Focus administration...just look at the FY2004-2005 ASUCD Creative Media budget) would jeopardize the financial health of ASUCD by drawing money out of our reserves to pay for operational expenses and give a minimal benefit to only a few hundred students, certainly not benefiting the 24,000 students ASUCD represents this year. —PaulHarms

Steve, no one was opposing Spencer in trying to create a Business Major. No one was opposing Spencer in increasing roll over pages. No one was opposing Spencer from bringing more concerts. Commissioners, Senators, and Unit members would have welcomed him and the legislation. I would agree that the publicity committee idea, if brought to a commission or Senate would have failed.

i would like to point out that.... I fought for all of those changes and was quickly told "no chance" by the administration on the Business Major and Roll Over Pages then was in fact COMPLETELY OPPOSED from working with Entertainment Council "We only work with LEAD" was the response. completely ridiculous. And a publicity unit is still a great idea, but good luck passing things in a Senate where every idea i brought to the table was instantly opposed by james schwab and therefore the majority of the LEAD Slate.

and Student Focus and I are the ONLY reason aggie pack stayed at the minimal funding it had.... as Darnell proposed it be almost entirely cut... we chose our battles in Budget Hearings because we knew that the LEAD majority would only allow us to argue sooo long until they would just close the budget. We were such a minority that LEAD had unlimited opportuity to make GREAT changes for the Association... and failed miserably.... take a look at COOO (LEAD Baby), it failed miserably, TWICE... and LEAD attempts to cover it with a larger institution (outreach assembly)... smart move.

look, if you want real change...and i mean CHANGE, then vote for Tiny and I. We will actually end this ignorant bickering and make changes that will be seen by the students. —SpencerHiggins

As the primary author on the Outreach Assembly thingy, I'd like to say that it will probably save us about $7,000. It should have a small programmatic budget, and pay the chair $49 a week. That's it. It still saves us a lot over the COOO (which everyone agrees was a LEAD failure). I don't see how everyone keeps saying it's going to cost a lot. —BrentLaabs
You should have known better that ASUCD has nothing to do with IET. Also, you should have known that the academic senate runs the show in regards to what majors are offered at UCD. Your campaign promises are a lot like those made by the 5th grade student council candidate who promises that he'll abolish homework and have the cafeteria serve fast food every day. The office you ran for NEVER would put you in a position to do those things and you should have known that. —WilliamLewis
You are proving the very valuable point that ASUCD resolutions amount to squat when it comes to Academic policy. The fact is that being an ASUCD Senators grants some attention ot a particular problem more than any one student could. —SteveOstrowski
Yep the COOO structure failed. Thats why we're trying a new one for cheaper! LOL, dude you never brought ideas to the table, you only authored one piece of legislation. Furthermore Check this out: The budget shows that Darnell proposed to maintain the same funding for Aggie pack as it had been the year before, total of $6,000. However the approved was $14,000. I would say that is a huge increase, who was responsibile for the increase, Spencer you most likely pushed for it, and then it was passed by a LEAD majority. Entertainment is not opposed to working with Student Focus, the Director and one of your current Senators (Tung and Frick) are really good friends. Entertainment Council, like most people is opposed to working with creepers.The administration always says no at first. They told Rob no, when requested staplers. They told Darnell no when he requested a fix route tipsy. But guess what they worked hard, and were determined to succeed and they did. I dont think people want a leader who quickly gives up.So in summary, you were wrong about budget hearings, wrong about Entertainment Council, and admitted to failing to work hard for your goals. But you were right about the COOO, which everyone already agrees on. Good luck becoming Pres. -JamesSchwab
The president's proposed budget shows the amount Aggie Pack was cut to before the LEAD administration headed by Caliph wrote the Money From Nowhere Act, that took money from Capital Reserves to fund the budget, in order to increase Aggie Pack to its previous years level of $14,000. And Spencer and I had to then sit and fight at budget hearings and head up negotiations just to get Aggie Pack back to the level they have received for the last 3+ years because people couldn't understand that LEAD the previous year took money that didn't really exist and put it into the operating budget and that is why it wasn't reflected in the final budget numbers for that year. $14,000 wasn't a "huge increase", it was simply the same amount of money that had received before. And furthermore, with LEAD touting their fiscal responsibility and so-called "balanced" budgets, this tactic used two years ago by a LEAD administration is essentially a budget deficit. You take money from the reserves to fund an operating budget, that's a deficit. Just because you want to make everyone happy at budget hearings, instead of doing the responsible thing and passing a budget with the money you're given doesn't make it right. So, in summary, you were wrong about budget hearings. -ChrisHerold

Actually, that is not true. From 04/05 to 05/6 Aggie Pack was reduced from $18k to $6. After that budget was passed, Caliph and Darnell each took money of of their budgets to make up for some of the loss. Then for 06/07 Darnell and Kai proposed to keep it at $6,000. The Senate took it back to $14k with the extra money Darnell and Kai left them to work with in the budget (though Natalia Farhadmotamed wanted to also cut money from Scholarships to increase Aggie Pack funding). Furthermore, the original deduction form 04/05 to 05/06 was passed under a non-LEAD Senate, while the increase in the 06/07 was passed by a LEAD dominated Senate. -James Schwab
Admittedly, the Money from Nowhere Act was kind of shady. Essentially, you're both right about the "increase". But really, this stuff is not very much out of the norm for ASUCD budgeting. We have pie-in-the-sky income line items that never materialize, and unit directors routinely run over. We only noticed months later that the Aggie Student Store was selling items under cost. Now this happened with a LEAD President and a Student Focus Controller, so I think that there's plenty of blame to go around. And every time we do this kind of voodoo budgeting, it's like cutting money from the Coffee House (and, incidentally, it makes Paul Harms eat a baby). ASUCD has had unbalanced budgets since before LEAD and Focus existed, so there's plenty of blame to go around. So instead of blaming each other for something that's essentially everybody's fault, could we all work together next year to get a decent budget? —BrentLaabs

2007-02-21 19:49:27 working with Entertainment Council "We only work with LEAD" was the response—Spencer Higgins

Just for the record, that is completely false. Here's what happened which may have triggered Spencer's statement on EC: Spencer approached me in mid August (?) to host a benefit concert for Cal Aggie Kids camp. He expressed interest in bringing Jurassic 5 and having them at the Mondavi center. Needless to say, it was a bit much for me to take in. Not only had James JUST approach me asking me for help with the ASUCD Voter Registration event, but I had also just become acclamated with my position as the director of the EC (having no previous experience with it in the past). A idea like that was out of the question—especially with the limited funding the EC gets. After I turned down Spencer's idea (not Student Focus, but Spencer), he asked for my assistance in helping him PLAN the event and teach him how to go about putting on a show. I agreed to help him with whatever he needed, but soon after, I never heard from him again. Never once in our conversation did I say "we only work with LEAD" nor did I ever give off that image.

I'm not a big fan of bipartisanships to begin with, but that doesn't mean I go out of my way to favor one over the other. Yes, I will admit that many LEAD candidates have approached me and been helpful with the things I've tried to do, but the same could be said for many of the Student Focus representatives. Like James mentioned above, my adopt-a-unit senator is Alex Frick (Student Focus) and Eric Friedman and Mara Harris have been avid supporters of what I'm trying to do. In closing, I hope any Student Focus or LEAD candidate will understand that my opinions and views do not express that of the Entertainment Council and its constituents. EC prides itself in staying neutral, as any ASUCD unit should. Fasho. —EmilyTung

2007-02-21 20:29:52 I don't think Spencer gets enough credit for voting no for the Keak da Sneak voter registration concert, which was a huge failure. —GregWebb

Wait, Spencer voted no on a bill that brought a concert to campus! Wasn't bringing concerts to campus part of his platform when he ran for Senate (see above)? Why did he vote no? -PaulHarms
Oh yeah, and PS how was it a failure? I saw more people at that event than any other ASUCD event I've been to before! I was there...where were you, Greg Webb? -PaulHarms
I can't speak for Spencer but it was a large allocation of funds for what could've been a more expanded crowd. The purpose was voter registration and the concert failed to do that, how many people actually registered to vote? . - GregWebb
I would be careful making a statement like that and if you're going to make a statement like that, make sure to have concrete evidence as to why you think so. And the Voter Registration event was to increase state-wide voter registration among college students (not to be confused with ASUCD voting because ASUCD elections don't require a separate registration). Unfortunately, our government failed at every capacity to increase the voter turnout in the last gubernatorial elections. Unfortunately, shit like that is out of ASUCD's control. - EmilyTung
And Greg, I would advise you to NOT insult the accomplishments of any ASUCD units—especially during YOUR elections. Criticisms about the event are one thing (I think the technical aspects of the event could've been orchestrated much better), but saying that it was a "huge failure" is another. - EmilyTung
I apologize for the language I have used, it was not need. I am optimistic about what the EC, and ASUCD can do in terms of voter registration and I'll be sure not to miss that chance to help when 2008 rolls around. - GregWebb
While "shit like that is out of ASUCD's control" they did/do(?) have a voter registration coordinator, and to be frank there was little to no registration happening at the event. I, however, am not blaming the coordinator for that, but rather the nature and circumstances of the event. Fortunately there was such a show of force from CalPIRG and other sources at other times, but because that event was about registering to vote, and it was about the Green/Lib debate, I personally wouldn't consider it a success for those purposes. For having a good time? Sure. For Bringing Keak Da Sneak to campus? Great! But if we consider the 3 or 5 thousand dollars it cost to put on the event, each of the few voters registered was quite expensive, and the resources could have been used better elsewhere. PS: I was at the event, tabling for my party and with some voter reg. forms, but there coulda been more just voter reg people, and the vast majority of waiting students weren't waiting in easily registerable places (like a waaaay too crowded hall). —MaxMikalonis
When you add up all the costs, not just the bill from Senate Reserves, the total is close to $10K. Now, I'm all for bringing big names in entertainment to campus, but not to the ARC ballroom where 300 max can get in and ASUCD officials are on "the list" to an already overcrowded event. That means ASUCD spent over $30/person to let 300 people go see Keak and the other ~21,700 students on this campus had their money spent on something they recieved absolutely no benefit from. However, I don't blame EC for this, they were just doing their job given what they were told. -ChrisHerold

Yup, the concert could have been a lot better. The concert had several purposes, register voters, educate students, hype the election, and entertain. The registration part was lacking but students got educated, entertained and the media covered it from Sacramento to the Bay. Oh ya and the ballroom holds about 800, 300 when there are seats. About 700 students came. I will completely agree that the event could have been so much better, but you learn from your mistakes and make it better. But this is what happens when you actually try and do stuff on campus, and not complaing that people told you no. -James Schwab
"~21,700 students on this campus had their money spent on something they recieved absolutely no benefit from." Sorta like spending $59,000 to raise ASUCD Stipends and CoHo wages? :-) -PaulHarms

2007-07-24 00:01:09 Porta-potties across the City! Paintball matches in Central Park! —PaulHarms

Philanthropic Paintball matches... GregWebb
You are seriously underestimating Higgins interest in City politics. —SteveOstrowski

I don't underestimate his interest. I'm sure he's quite interested. Problem for him is, there are lots of people interested in him losing. Big time. Again.\