UC Davis students may be asked next month to increase their own fees to finance about $65 million in athletic facilities and other campus improvements under an initiative proposed by student leaders. New facilities would include an activities and recreation center, multi-use stadium, swimming pool complex, covered equestrian arena and a student recruitment and retention center. The student fee increase would also buy new fitness equipment for the campus Recreation Hall, expand sports clubs programs, and provide financial aid to offset the fees for low-income students. If approved by students, the fee increase would be phased in over five years as the programs and facilities become available. The per-quarter fee -- currently $1,386 a quarter for undergraduates and $1,489.50 for graduate students who are California residents -- would go up by $5 in fall 1999, increase an additional $6 beginning fall 2000 and then remain stable for three years. The fee would go up $115 more in 2003-2004 after the biggest projects are completed. Student supporters this week began collecting the 1,500 signatures needed to put the measure -- titled Facility and Campus Enhancements, or FACE -- on the Associated Students of UC Davis election ballot Wednesday, Feb. 24. Graduate and professional students would vote by mail over a two-week period ending the same day. For the measure to pass, campus regulations require that at least 3,795 students vote in the election and that the measure receives majority approval. Scott Reed, president of the Associated Students of UC Davis, said he and other backers are following the example of past generations of students who taxed themselves to pay for such buildings as the campus Memorial Union and Recreation Hall. "It's now our duty, our responsibility ... to plan for the future," Reed said. "We know more students are going to come. We're going to plan for great facilities so that they can have the same great experience at UC Davis that we've had." Reed said the proposal is the brainchild of more than 20 undergraduate and graduate students who wish to address a campus need to replace aging athletic and recreational facilities and create more space for student activities. "It's been in some students' heads for years, some probably from the first football game they went to," he said, referring to UC Davis' Toomey Field, which was built in the 1930s. Reed said the campus's more than 300 registered student groups have a tough time finding places to meet and to host performances and other events. The biggest project included in the initiative proposal, a $41.5 million Activities and Recreation Center, would provide space for student recreational, cultural and social activities. Intended to complement the Rec Hall, the center would include a lounge, art gallery and computer-access space; indoor courts for intramural and recreational sports like soccer, volleyball, basketball and floor hockey; weight-lifting, aerobics, mat space and four-wall courts as well as meeting rooms; a dance studio and performance space for student organizations; and a place for Cal Aggie Marching Band-Uh! members to store instruments and change into their uniforms. Of the full $126 fee, the center would receive the largest share -- $68, which would also cover maintenance costs. Another $18 of the fee would pay about $14 million of the estimated $20 million cost for a stadium to replace Toomey Field. The campus would raise the other third of the costs. The new stadium would have fixed seating for 8,000 to 10,000 people, with expandable seating for up to 20,000 spectators. Toomey Field has a maximum seating capacity of 10,111 and requires the campus to bring in portable restrooms during football games and other athletic events. Janet Gong, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs, said the limited capacity prevents UC Davis from hosting high-school championships and other community events that would raise revenue and bring potential students and their families to campus. The proposed initiative would earmark another $18 for financial aid, raising at least $1.5 million a year to offset the fees for about 5,000 students with the greatest need. Student leaders and campus administrators said the proposed initiative would be the first in the UC system to return student fees to financial aid. "There's a real human face on this," Gong said. Eleven dollars of the proposed fee would help finance a $5 million aquatics complex with an Olympic-size swimming pool. Other funding will include a $1 million donation made last spring by Rand Schaal, a UC Davis geology instructor and alumnus, and his father, Ted. The campus's Hickey Pool was built in 1938 and is not competition size. The other campus pool, Recreation Pool, is a free-form pool built in 1966 and is open April to October only for recreational swimming. Another $5 of the fee would go toward establishing a recruitment and retention center to support student-led efforts to attract and keep new students. Four dollars would go toward more than $2 million in improvements to the campus equestrian center, including a covered arena, new horse pens and feeding shelters and better lighting. The equestrian center, built in the 1960s, houses 100 horses and provides riding lessons to more than 3,500 people a year. Horses and their riders currently have little protection from winter rain and wind and summer sun, said senior JoAnn Ranchie, president of the student equestrian team, riding instructor and barn supervisor. "We'd like to make it more accessible for all the students," Ranchie said. "They'd enjoy it much more with the better facilities." One dollar of the fee would go for new training equipment for the Rec Hall, which was built with student fees and opened in 1977. Another $1 would go toward club sports. About two-thirds of UC Davis students participate in 1,500 to 1,700 intramural teams every year. The fee, among other things, would be used to hire referees, improve field lighting and upgrade the in-line skating facility. "It's a win-win for us if it's approved," said Gary Colberg, director of intramural sports clubs. "If it's not, it's going to be a blue Thursday on the 25th of February." Locations for the proposed new facilities have yet to be determined, although potential sites for athletic facilities have been identified in the campus's long-range development plan. They include land near the Rec Hall and 27 acres between Hutchison Drive, La Rue Road and the Health Sciences Complex. The last time UC Davis students voted to increase their fees was in 1994-95 when they agreed to pay $62 a quarter to save the men's wrestling and water polo teams from being eliminated and to add women's teams in water polo, crew and lacrosse.