APU Opens Revamped Duke Student Commons

This article was originally published on APU’s website.

Azusa Pacific University recently celebrated the opening of the new John and Marilyn Duke Student Commons on West Campus. The completely redesigned 27,000-square-foot-space, which was formerly known as Heritage Court, enhances the campus experience for all students. “The Duke Commons is intentionally designed to facilitate student connection, engagement, and belonging,” said Keith Hall, EdD, vice president of student belonging and chief diversity officer. “The Commons is a perfect environment for graduate and undergraduate students to organically cultivate new relationships or deepen existing ones with peers, faculty, and staff."

As you enter through the main entrance off of Parking Lot H, the space is filled with a variety of booths for meeting and leisure pods conducive to studying. “Although APU has a number of places across East and West campuses where students can gather, connect, and socialize, the Duke Commons provides a centralized space for students to relate, recharge, and refresh before, in between, and after classes. It offers utility that can serve as a home away from home,” Hall said. Commuter student Eli Herrera, a sophomore psychology major with a music minor, enjoys the many amenities Duke Commons offers. “The seats are comfortable and there are so many that I never have to spend time searching for a place to sit,” Herrera said. “I like how nice and organized it is.”

The Commons also features stadium seating, with seven levels for students to gather under a Cougars banner. “We put a huge, drop-down screen facing the stadium seating, so professors can reserve the space if they’d like to show a film for class, clubs can have a movie night, and we’re planning on doing community events like World Series watch parties,” said Heather Snyder ’99, MBM ’09, director of auxiliary services.

The three eateries on West Campus have also been revamped. Hillside Grounds has a more open design that offers students a perfect spot to enjoy a freshly brewed cup of coffee. The Grill now features a broader menu including Mexican cuisine and a student favorite, loaded tater tots. The Market allows students to quickly grab a snack or beverage on their way to class. “With these dining venues, there’s something for everyone,” Snyder said. “Whether you’re in the mood for a sandwich, a burrito, or just a quick snack on the go, you can find it here.”

A popular change to the space is the addition of the Campus Store, which offers an extensive selection of APU gear, including t-shirts, polos, tank tops, sweaters, jackets, shorts, and hats. The store also stocks an impressive variety of APU accessories including mugs, water bottles, backpacks, stickers, ornaments, and more. Students can stock up on any necessary class materials from books to binders. Also located in the Commons, Cougar Tech features all the latest Apple products.

At the other end of the Duke Commons sits the Commuter Desk. This desk offers a one stop hub for commuter students to receive services including one free snack per day and access to a printer where they can print up to 10 pages for free each day. They can also store extra materials in lockers, keep their food in a refrigerator, and use microwaves to cook it between classes. “By nature, commuter students do not have the ability to run back to their residential areas, to rest or grab something, so we want to make their lives easier,” said Matt Browning, EdD, director of Commuter Life. “Commuter students are an integral part of the APU community. These students work especially hard to be here and balance work, family, and school. We’re proud to serve these extraordinary students.” APU has more than 1,200 commuter students enrolled for the 2022-23 academic year. Victoria Ramos ’22, a graduate social work student who commutes from Ontario, said the Duke Commons benefits commuters in ways Heritage didn’t. “This is a place where I enjoy spending time.”

APU Expands Physical Therapy Program, Opens New Facility

As spring semester at Azusa Pacific University came to a close and most students and faculty headed home for the summer, the Department of Physical Therapy geared up to move into their new 26,000-square-foot facility. Located in the back of Duke Hall, the space is more than four times the size of the former location in Mary Hill. “It was a busy time. Our summer classes started just a couple days after we moved in,” said Derrick Sueki, DPT, Ph.D., Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program director. “Everyone is energized by the new space. It still has that new car smell!”

The facility was made possible by a $3 million donation from alumni Steve and Susie Perry through their Sacred Harvest Foundation. The expansion allows the DPT program to grow their annual cohort size by more than 50 percent, increasing enrollment from 48 to 74 students. “We have three cohorts at a time, so this represents a big increase in students,” said Susan Shore, Ph.D., chair and professor in the Department of Physical Therapy. “Our program is extremely competitive. We average more than 900 applicants each year. People come from all over the country to study with us.”

Annette Karim, DPT, Ph.D., Postprofessional Studies program director, said the design and planning was purposeful. “We’ve planned for growth. We could have easily filled more spaces from the beginning, but we didn’t have the space for the quality of education we wanted to provide. Now we do,” she said. “Maintaining the 1 to 15 faculty to student ratio is also very important to us.”

The facility features spacious lecture rooms and labs, providing a host of technological upgrades that enhance classroom instruction. “We educate through a different model than most departments. We have to visualize how people walk, squat, bend, and perform other movements,” Sueki said. “The new classrooms are equipped with cameras in the ceiling. The cameras are interconnected with our desktop, allowing us to take pictures and videos of people moving. We can project these videos on screens and draw on them with smart boards.” Students work on two-sided flip tables that consist of a soft padded side for physical therapy and a hard side for note taking.“The tables offer convenience and functionality for our students,” said Karim.

APU is one of only two Council for Christian Colleges & Universities schools on the West Coast with a DPT program, and Shore said APU’s program is one of the best in the country. “The thing that separates us from other universities beyond the curriculum is the quality of the teaching, which I think is unequaled by any other school,” she said. Karim said the faculty truly connect with their students. “The DPT program requires three full years to complete. That’s quite a bit of time to live life, to go through the ups and downs,” she said. “People often choose APU for the quality of the faculty. You choose your mentors. I think God uses us in that way.”

Sueki said the connection between students and faculty played a role in the design of the building. “One of the primary components in the facility design was to provide spaces for students to interact with each other and with faculty, to go beyond just education, to be a part of each other’s lives,” he said.

Contributing to the DPT’s program expansion and new facility is the exponential growth of the field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment rate for physical therapists is expected to increase by 36 percent through the year 2022. “We’re an aging population. They say 60 is the new 30. Because of this, we need more physical therapists to take care of people as they get older,” Karim said. In California, the annual mean wage for a physical therapist is approximately $96,000. Currently, APU’s DPT students experience a 97 percent graduation rate, and its DPT graduates benefit from a 100 percent overall pass rate on the National Physical Therapy Exam and 100 percent employment in their field.

“This facility allows us to expand our mission, our visions for our field, and the students we serve,” Sueki said.