SDSU President Adela de la Torre Charts Ambitious Five-Year Future as University Builds on Historic Growth

At San Diego State’s 2026 All-University Convocation, de la Torre outlined a five-part strategy centered on research, expansion, reputation, and long-term sustainability as universities confront enrollment pressures, artificial intelligence, and economic uncertainty.

SAN DIEGO | San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre opened the 2026-27 academic year with a message that combined celebration with urgency: SDSU's recent transformation has created opportunities, but maintaining that momentum will require the university to think bigger about what comes next.

Speaking before nearly 1,000 faculty and staff members at the annual All-University Convocation, de la Torre outlined a vision for the next five years that seeks to capitalize on SDSU's emergence as an R1 research institution, its expanding Mission Valley campus, new investments at Imperial Valley and its entry into the Pac-12 Conference.

The objective, she said, is not simply to preserve what SDSU has accomplished but to use those achievements as a foundation for "an even more ambitious future."

"If we do not ask big questions, we will never arrive at big answers," de la Torre said Thursday at the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union.

It was a fitting theme for a university whose trajectory increasingly reflects the broader transformation — and challenges — reshaping American higher education.