Thirteen years ago, when San Jose State’s class of 2019 was still in third grade playing on monkey bars — the university’s student body agreed to pay additional fees to fund facilities upgrades and new buildings on campus. The last — and biggest — of these became a reality Thursday when SJSU cut the ribbon on a new $130 million recreation and aquatics center.

“We can be proud that we have a facility that is second to none,” said San Jose State Mary Papazian, who was a grad student at UCLA in 1983 when it opened the Wooden Center, a student rec building she called “extraordinary, but not as beautiful as this one.”

Indeed, San Jose State’s new Student Recreation and Aquatic Center — dubbed “S-RACK” — is a quantum leap above the school’s current or previous facilities. The architecture and design firm Gensler created a temple to activity that is spacious and bright, thanks to high ceilings and an abundance of natural light, equipped with everything a 21st century student would expect, from exercise machines, an indoor track and aerobics studios to a three-court gym, rock-climbing wall and quiet lounge spaces.

And that’s just the interior of the 128,000 square foot facility.

Outside there are two pools — a 21-lane competition lap pool that will be home to SJSU’s swim, diving and water polo teams and a large recreation pool that includes an additional six lanes. The rec pool is surrounded by lounge chairs and an artificial turn area for outdoor yoga, which will no doubt be enticing for students in the residence halls that overlook the new facility.

Don’t think that isn’t on purpose, either. Like the large windows that let passers by see rock climbers and weight trainers, it’s all part of creating a new destination that’ll make students want to stick around campus, said Cathy Busalacchi, executive director of Student Union Inc, which is responsible for the facility.

“This is where students come together and where our community comes together,” said Busalacchi, who also oversaw the successful expansion of the Diaz Compean Student Union. “This facility is more than a recreation center. It’s a gathering space for our community.”

“Gathering space” may not be the phrase that immediately came to mind for students who waited hours in line to be the first inside the SRAC, which officially opens Monday at 6 a.m.

Emmanuel Cestoni, a 30-year-old software engineering student, says that activity can be the best way to ease the stress students are under, and he expects to use the equipment during breaks between classes. He’s thankful that it’s bigger than the gym at the Event Center, which would often be too full to use equipment. “This is better because more students will be able to come here,” he said.

But the pool will be the big draw for Edgar Sanchez, a 22-year-old civil engineering student, and his sister, first-year student Montse Sanchez. “I used to to go to the old pool a lot when I started here, so I’m excited about it,” Edgar Sanchez said.

He wasn’t the only one. The old 50-meter lap pool was a hidden gem for the community that lived near the campus, open every day for lap swimming with a reasonable $3 entrance fee. People rightfully were crushed when it closed.

Current SJSU students have free access to the facility, but it’s also open to faculty, alumni and the community at large. Full-access memberships range from $45 to $90 a month, and pool-only memberships are also available, as well as a summer pool pass — good from Memorial Day weekend until the Friday before school starts in August — that is available for families of four. It’s open from 6 a.m. to midnight weekdays, with more limited hours on weekends and for areas like the pool and climbing walls. More details are available at www.spartanrec.com.

One thing that is certain, though, is that completing the SRAC is a fitting swan song for Basalucci, a 1976 San Jose State grad who is retiring this summer after a 30-year career with the university, She was called out by speaker after speaker at Thursday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for being the driving force behind this and other recent projects. But she says it was San Jose State’s students who served as her guide during planning and construction, telling her what kind of space, programs and equipment would suit their needs.

In those early days, she was able to persuade them this was something worth increasing their fees over. “They could see how it could change campus, and what it could bring to San Jose State and the students who came after them,” she said.

Like those third-graders in 2006, who will now get to lounge poolside after a big test thanks to the foresight and generosity of the Spartans who came before them.