De la Torre looks toward building upon SDSU’s historic impact
At the All-University Convocation, the president said SDSU remains a powerful engine for personal and community transformation.
San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre opened the 2026-27 academic year by looking ahead to the next five years, a period in which she said SDSU will build upon its most recent achievements for “an even more ambitious future.”
“I want us to remember one idea,” de la Torre said in an address to nearly 1,000 faculty and staff Thursday at the annual All-University Convocation. “If we do not ask big questions, we will never arrive at big answers.”
The event at Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union was de la Torre’s ninth convocation at SDSU. De la Torre’s address harkened back to its origins in 1897 as The San Diego Normal School for prospective teachers, with fewer than 100 students and faculty members combined, and an arc that transformed it into a binational public research university.
She detailed what she referred to as “the arc of our future,” one that builds on recent strengths that include SDSU’s designation as an R1 research institution, the continuing development of SDSU Mission Valley, a new science laboratory building and student housing at SDSU Imperial Valley and SDSU’s entry this year into the Pac-12 Conference.
De la Torre said the arc links five themes to frame SDSU’s actions for the future: Focus, build, advance, brand and sustain.
Achieving R1 status, she said, should be seen as a beginning, not an end, in which SDSU considers what it wants to be known for and how it will “guarantee that an SDSU education remains one of the most powerful engines for individual, family and community transformation.”
“Our challenge is to be disciplined about our priorities,” she said, “and clear about where our efforts can make the greatest impact.”
Higher education is in a period of disruption, de la Torre said, driven in part by intense competition among schools to attract the nation’s decreasing number of college-ready students.
“We must make the value of an SDSU education unmistakable," she said, “and ensure that the experience we provide lives up to that promise. And we must strengthen our brand and reputation because we can then attract talented staff and faculty, and partners willing to commit their resources to our cause.”
Along those lines, the annual Alumni Distinguished Faculty Awards were presented by Bill Tong, provost and senior vice president of Academic Affairs, and Yolanda Apalategui, president of the SDSU Alumni Board of Advisors.
This year’s honorees are:
- Ramona Pérez, College of Arts and Letters
- Paula Peter, Fowler College of Business
- Charles Degeneffe, College of Education
- Karen May-Newman, College of Engineering
- Mark Kern, College of Health and Human Services
- Katherine Spilde, College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts
- Andrew Cooksy, College of Sciences
- Leslie Wilson, Student Affairs & Campus Diversity
- Linda Abarbanell, SDSU Imperial Valley
Also recognized were the Presidential Staff Excellence Awards recipients for 2025-26: Carolyn Martinson, Jennifer Ranallo, Alissa Ramos, Claudia Mendoza, Jon Rizzo, Cristina Sanchez, Jennifer Logan, Melissa Bracci, Briana Dallo, and Tony Carrasco.
The university’s sixth annual Lifetime Achievement staff award recipient was Millard “Skip” Austin, senior engineer/network architect in the Information Technology Network and Infrastructure Division.
University Senate Chair Stephen Schellenberg and Associated Students (A.S.) President Milan Rawls, representing bodies that are both part of SDSU’s tradition of shared governance, also spoke at convocation.
“We begin this year acutely aware of the forces shaping higher education,” Schellenberger said, “from political strife and attacks on intellectual freedom to economic uncertainty, systemic inequities, and fiscal challenges. Navigating those forces will require exactly what healthy shared governance supports and demands: dialogue, judgment and responsibility.”
Schellenberg also spoke of the need for conversation on the proper use of AI in the classroom, and for educators to “walk alongside our students, helping them recognize both the opportunities and the hazards, while preparing them to find their own way.”
Rawls, a fourth-year student from Elk Grove, California, said in the year ahead A.S. wants to “expand the opportunities for students to access the opportunities and resources they need,” aiming for cross-campus partnerships “to make essential services easier to find and use.”
“We will continue to cultivate spaces where students feel welcomed, supported and empowered to get involved,” Rawls said.
