David Song-Ruiter Transitioning to the California State University System

After nearly six years of distinguished service, David Song-Ruiter, faculty director of the Teaching and Learning Commons, will be transitioning, effective August 2, 2026, to become the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs, Innovation, and Faculty Excellence for The California State University system. In this new role, he will lead program development, foster cross-institution collaboration and amplify faculty and leadership development efforts across the 22 campuses of the Cal State system.

During his time leading the Commons, Song-Ruiter guided many transformational efforts, including:

Collaborating with Student Retention and Success to expand the Summer Bridge program to be one of the largest in the nation, going from serving about 400 students in 2020, to nearly 800 students in 2025, with more than 92 percent of those students persisting beyond their first year at UC San Diego.
Overseeing implementation of learning communities for faculty, including the Gen AI Faculty Learning Community, the Assessment Learning Community (with the Dean of Undergraduate Education), and the Teaching and Learning with AI Learning Community. Overall, the Commons has seen more than 780 instructors register to participate in these communities and teaching workshops.
Significantly increasing the number of students using the Co-Curricular Record, or CCR, to validate experiential learning activities, with more than 4,800 students using the CCR to record student employment, leadership and other career-enhancing opportunities they engaged in during their time at UC San Diego.
The Commons provided academic support for more than 9,000 undergraduate students (about 25 percent of undergraduate population) in the 2024-25 academic year, with those students visiting the Commons an average of 4 to 6 times annually.

Additionally, Song-Ruiter co-chaired the Affordable Learning and Financial Support Collective Impact Working Group, from which several impactful programs originated including the CalFresh Communication Campaign and the Triton One flat-rate learning materials program, reducing equity gaps for students experiencing food and financial insecurity.

Prior to joining UC San Diego, Song-Ruiter served as Associate Provost for Student and Faculty Success and Strategic Initiatives, and an associate professor of English, at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). In his role as Associate Provost at UTEP, he led the collaborative development and implementation of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan, an ambitious ten-year student success plan designed to give every student a competitive edge in terms of academic, professional, and lifelong success.

Time and again, Song-Ruiter has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to equity and inclusion and worked collaboratively and inclusively across campus to bolster student and faculty success. Please join us in thanking David for his thoughtful leadership of the Teaching and Learning Commons and his impactful contributions to student and faculty success at UC San Diego. We wish him great success in his new position at the Cal State System. Plans for the Teaching and Learning Commons leadership transition will be forthcoming.

Elizabeth H. Simmons
Executive Vice Chancellor

John Moore
Dean, Division of Undergraduate Education

University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093