In what was the largest such turnout in school history, University of Houston students overwhelmingly voted for an increase in the student service fee to help fund the construction of a new football stadium and renovation of Hofheinz Pavilion, the school announced Thursday morning.

The UH Student Government Association put a $45 per-semester, per-student fee increase to a student referendum and it passed by a wide margin as 73.9 percent of the voting body voted for the increase. A record of 9,923 students hit the polls Tuesday and Wednesday and 7,334 of them voted in favor of the fee increase.

With 26.1 percent of the student body casting votes, it was the largest voter turnout for a student referendum, vice president of student affairs Richard Walker said. The previous high was 15 percent for a 1998 referendum involving the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, which also passed and was completed in 2003.

“It is a huge day,” athletic director Mack Rhoades said. “We can’t thank our students enough and everybody that was involved in this process: Student Government Association, the division of student affairs, our student-athletes and coaches.”

UH already has plans in motion for a new football stadium that will replace its current facility, Robertson Stadium. The school is planning to break ground in December for the project, which will cost an estimated $120 million. The UH athletic department has already raised roughly half of that cost, Rhoades said.

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