The university welcomed students with changes in schedule, chapel times and dining services. With various departments changing both their look and revamping services, what can APU students expect this year?
Schedule Reform
Azusa Pacific welcomed hundreds of new students for the fall semester, along with a restructured class block schedule. The change affected more than just academics.
For the first time in APU’s history, the time of morning chapel changed. Students received an extra hour in the morning as a result.
The request to change chapel time came into discussion after the provost’s office conducted a study and concluded APU classrooms were not being utilized as productively as they could.
“[The office] approached [chapel programs] to ask if we would consider moving chapel an hour later in order to open more classroom usage in that morning section,” said Tim Peck, director of chapel programs.
Chapel now takes place Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 10:30-11:20 a.m. instead of 9:30-10:20 a.m. As a result, many students have enrolled in classes before chapel.
Rearranging the schedule created two blocks of classes before chapel as opposed to just one in previous years. More Friday classes were made available as well.
“We looked at the pros and cons and tried to think through strategically the effect,” Peck said. “We said we were willing for the sake of the whole university and to more effectively use the facilities God’s given us.”
The ultimate decision was not made in haste as the the conversation between both the and chapel programs took about a year and a half, Peck said.
While the chapel time change was not a huge difference, it sparked conversation amongst the APU community.
From Hospitality Services to Dining Services
Chapel programs was not the only department affected by the new block schedule. Dining services changed its operations as a result of the plan, too.
One eatery in particular, Cougars’ Den, had to change its hours to fit the new chapel time.
“The Den opens later now,” senior journalism major Josh Contreras, a dining services employee said. “We used to open at 10:30 and now we open at 11:00 because we don’t want to open right when chapel is starting.”
By the time chapel ends, it is lunch time and many students hurry to grab food before their next class. The rush of students has caused long lines in the Cougars’ Den.
“It doesn’t get busy until 11:20 and then a crazy rush comes,” Contreras said. “It’s stressful.”
Different operation hours are just one of two differences in dining services this fall. APU updated its entire meal plan system too.
The new meal plan provides more options and allows students to save money. In the past, meal plan credits and dining dollars could not be used interchangeably.
“With the new point system, you can buy things individually, but when you use your meal plan, it cuts the price of the meal in half,” Contreras said.
Students with meals plans now get 50 percent off and can use their dining points in the Paws n’ Go. Many students have benefited from this because they can no longer run out of dining dollars; everything is purchased within the same point system.
“It’s a little confusing at first but it’s a really good system,” Contreras said.