The people of Davis needed an ARC, and it was built — and it is good.

“It’s wildly popular,” Brett Burns, interim Activities and Recreation Center director, said. “No one expected it to be quite like this.”

Sacramento State has wanted to build a center for a while, but it was UC Davis that jumped on board first and got it done.

It is the largest and newest recreation center in the University of California system, just over the Yolo Causeway in Davis, west of Sac State. Something like it will soon be built at Sac State — the Recreation, Wellness and Events Center.

Unlike the RWEC, the ARC, which cost $46 million, is completely funded by students through a permanent fee increase of $65 per quarter, Burns said.

The RWEC will cost $73 million, and student fees will increase $110 per semester, once President Alexander Gonzalez raises the initial $25 million.

Sac State students were unwilling to completely fund a recreation center because it would dramatically increase fees, said Leslie Davis, University Union director.

Davis said there was no way students would have agreed to paying $251 per academic period.

Another factor was leadership, said ASI Director of Education Nicki Croly.”Involvement from previous President (Donald) Gerth was not as large as Gonzalez. Gerth was not big on money, whereas President Gonzalez is raising money before we pay,” Croly said.

Davis said Gonzalez’s arrival in July of 2003 was big, and he quickly took a lead role and became a champion for the recreation center.

Croly said fees were a big factor when the previous two referendums did not pass.

“Fees would have hit us sooner with the previous plan, as opposed to this plan. That was a big pusher for a lot of students, the fact that we only have to pay this much and not until the president (Gonzalez) backs it up first. That says a lot about his enthusiasm and how he will step up,” Croly said.

Davis said Gonzalez’s top priority is the RWEC now.

“His goal is to do the fund-raising to support the students’ desire for a state-of-the-art facility,” Davis said.

In 1999, Davis was able to pass an initiative that would increase student fees to build a recreation center to complement its current facility, according to the UC Davis’ initiative.

UC Davis students also voted to fund a new football stadium and aquatics center, Burns said.

Currently at Davis, there is a debt service of $3 million paid annually for the building. Along with that, there are other finances set aside, such as money that will be used for major maintenance issues.

Burns said that the ARC has $12 million of exercising equipment. General operations has costs at about $2 million per year. The budget for the year however was still pending and has not yet been released. Roughly $500,000 is raised through membership or one-time usages fees, a general shop, a cafe and through rental of the facility. The rest comes from student fees.

Burns said not many corners were cut due to budgetary restriction during construction, but there were some.

Back in the spring of 1999, Sac State students could not go after a student body facility fee for the recreation center because one already existed with the Union. A second fee designated to build a facility funded by student money was not allowed by a legislative student code, Davis said.

That referendum back in the spring only called for a recreation center, not what’s in the works now.

Because students couldn’t add on another fee, the Union got on board for the second referendum on the fall of 1999 to combine both Union fees and a new fee in one package, Davis said.

“The second time around, the referendum failed hugely, the no-supporters were very active,” Davis said.

After that vote, the idea of a recreation was put to bed for a while, but not forgotten, Davis said.

In 2002 the idea resurfaced through efforts by ASI, and in spring 2003 a steering committee, mostly led by students, was set up to look at the plan once again, Davis said.

Burns said that UC Davis, similar to Sac State, had no administrators on campus push for the ARC initially, their support and fostering of the major project came after the students called for the plan.

Back at UC Davis, when the project came up, students, through round table discussions, and committees, similar to here at Sac State committee, made up a wish list of amenities that could be featured in their ARC, Burns said.

From there on, administrators went into the planning process, and UC Davis students, with a 67 percent of yes votes, supported the project.

And in April of 2004, the RWEC referendum passed with 52.2 percent. Davis said everything is on track and “ground will break in late 2006, and the plan will be open June 2008, …we are setting it up as our target.”

With that projection, it will give about a four year duration from passing the referendum to opening, in comparison, Davis took about a year more after its initiative.