# David Reingold

David A. Reingold (born 1968) is an American sociologist and higher education administrator. He is the Senior Vice President for Policy Planning and the Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University on the West Lafayette campus where he is a professor of sociology.

## Education and career

David Reingold was born in 1968 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood. He attended the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his master's and doctorate from the University of Chicago’s Department of Sociology.
He became an assistant professor at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 1997, an associate professor with tenure in 2003, a professor in 2009. He was also a visiting professor at Central European University, School of Public Policy in 2013-2015.
In 2006, he was named Director of Public Affairs and Public Policy Ph.D. Programs in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University.
In 2008, Reingold was named Executive Associate Dean for the School of Public and Environmental Affairs for the campus at Indiana University Bloomington.
In 2015, he was named Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University on the West Lafayette campus and professor of sociology.
In 2023, he was appointed Senior Vice President for Policy Planning at Purdue University.
In March 2025, he was named Executive Vice President and Chancellorat Indiana Bloomington, the first to serve in the role since 2006. As chancellor, he will be responsible for finance and administration, community engagement, enrollment management, student life and the campus's research and creative activities.

## University leadership

As Senior Vice President for Policy Planning, Reingold continues his oversight of Purdue's Civics Literacy graduation requirement, which he has led for all Purdue campuses since its adoption in 2021. Also in his portfolio are Purdue's commitment to freedom of expression and inquiry, Purdue@DC which represents the university's coordinated effort on research, teaching, and service in the nation's capitol, and a critical thinking initiative. In June 2024, Purdue's Trustees reaffirmed the University's commitment to institutional neutrality as defined in a 1966 resolution incorporating the principles outlined in the University of Chicago's Kalven Report.
In December 2014, Purdue University announced it had named Reingold the next dean of its College of Liberal Arts. He assumed office on March 1, 2015, as the Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University. A letter to the College's faculty and staff set the tone for his administration later that spring.
Launched in fall 2017 as a 15-credit certificate program, a new Cornerstone program established a faculty-taught first year sequence to fulfill core curriculum requirements in oral and written communication built around transformative texts, among the greatest that has been said and written. Cornerstone has gained significant notice in the higher education press. Reingold advocated for the importance of general education classes at large research universities, referencing Cornerstone, in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
Other key initiatives of his administration include Degree+, which allows students to earn a B.A. along with their B.S. and complete both in four years; advancing Purdue’s commitment to affordability with the initial Degree in 3 program; Empowering Excellence, a broad program to support faculty research; and a graduate student initiative, which provides a better balance between research and teaching, redistributes resources to allow for more competitive stipends, and better prepares graduate students for professional success.
Reingold led a successful effort to launch a bachelor of arts degree in music at Purdue, a first for the university. The Purdue Board of Trustees approved the new major in April 2021, followed by the Indiana Commission on Higher Education in May. Students pursuing the degree will focus on music technology or general music studies.
In February 2022, Purdue approved two degrees in artificial intelligence, a bachelor of arts from the Department of Philosophy and a bachelor of science from the Department of Computer Science. The jointly developed degrees were a product of a Lilly Endowment Inc. planning grant to create a model program focused on developing curriculum around professional ethics at the intersection of the liberal arts and technological innovation. Reingold served as principal investigator for the project.
In October 2022, the Trustees approved an investment of $46.6M for the restoration of University Hall and significant renovations in Beering and Stanley Coulter halls, all housing units of the College of Liberal Arts. The oldest building on Purdue’s campus, University Hall will reopen in fall 2025 as the new front door of the College of Liberal Arts featuring classrooms and student-focused study and collaboration spaces.
In 2021, Reingold effectively shuttered Purdue's creative writing program and its literary journal, Sycamore Review, which depends upon graduate students who staff the magazine. He did this by denying the department enough graduate students to keep the program afloat. Reingold's public statement claimed that the department had overspent its 2020-21 graduate budget and made additional commitments that would not allow for the admission of new graduate students in Fall 2022, despite no reduction in the department's graduate education budget from 2021-22 to 2022-23. He maintained that the English Department faculty and leadership will determine the future of the program and the literary journal. His claim that this was financially necessary was disputed by the English faculty and department.

## Public service

From 2002-04 he was Director of the Office of Research and Policy Development for the U.S. Corporation for National and Community Service in Washington D.C. He is a founding director of the Community Investment Fund of Indiana, a state-wide community development financial institution.