Newsmaker 2023 | Cabrillo College Trustees press pause on renaming decision – Santa Cruz Sentinel

APTOS — Cabrillo College started 2023 holding the same name it has had since its founding in 1959 and will end the year with an intention to keep it that way for at least the next few years.

On its face, this fact may appear unremarkable. But within the context of the school’s years-long reckoning with its namesake, it represents a surprising turn that came after months of fierce debate and public turmoil.

Weeks before the end of 2022, Cabrillo’s Board of Trustees voted 6-1 to begin the process of changing its name in an effort to dissociate itself from its namesake, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Cabrillo was a 16th century conquistador, famous for his expeditions along the California coast in 1542 but also tied to a legacy of slave labor and subjugation of native people.

The board, and the Name Exploration Subcommittee that had guided the effort for more than two years, launched a lengthy public engagement process in 2023 that included solicitation of new names and multiple community forums to discuss the finalists; all with a goal of recommending a new name to the board in August.

But by that time, the disagreement and division in the public square had hit such a fever pitch that the board voted to delay the decision at its August meeting and one month later, again by a 6-1 margin, pushed back renaming the school until at least 2028.

In that September motion, the board did also agree to “reject and make explicit” the school’s disassociation with Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and the “immoral acts he committed.”

Pause and pivot

The name exploration process has roots dating back to the summer of 2020 when the school received a petition from more than 100 students, faculty and staff to change the name in the wake of widespread social unrest across the country and a critical analysis of Cabrillo, the man.

After forming the subcommittee weeks later, months of public education sessions and community dialogues ensued, culminating in a 64-page report shared with the board at its November meeting last year. The report included dialogue summaries, consultation with historians and scholars and non-scientific public surveys.

“The fact (is) that we have now found out that he (Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo) wasn’t a hero, he wasn’t a nice person,” said Trustee Dan Rothwell in the 2022 meeting. “He was in fact a pretty bad person. Morally and ethically it makes it impossible for me to say that we should keep the name as ‘Cabrillo College.’ I just can’t go along with keeping it.”

In a recent interview with the Sentinel, Cabrillo Superintendent/President Matt Wetstein, a member of the subcommittee alongside trustees Christina Cuevas and Adam Spickler, stood behind the exploration work the subcommittee did in 2021 and 2022.

“A lot of the community education efforts and the meetings that were held and the people who engaged in that process; that was all strong and positive,” said Wetstein, “and done in a way that honored voice and … people’s different perspectives and it was collegial and it was the way a higher (education) institution should operate in conducting those kinds of events.”

But when the decision to change was made and the subcommittee unveiled a shortlist of five potential new names in June, that’s when, Wetstein said, he and others felt a groundswell of opposition break through.

“It was a bit of a shock, but maybe it should not have been,” said Wetstein.

Trustees’ inboxes were flooded with messages, Cabrillo donors threatened to pull their financial support, meetings on the topic frequently featured hours of public testimony coming from both sides of the issue.

“I love Cabrillo College and I don’t love Juan Cabrillo. But of the 99 problems facing Cabrillo College, the name change doesn’t even make the list,” said Paul Meltzer, a Cabrillo graduate and former foundation board member at an August meeting. Many opposed to the change objected to estimates that it would cost $400,000-$600,000, though the trustees had pledged it would not come from public funds.

Others in favor of the change often spoke of the generational trauma and harm the name continues to cause.

“A big part of helping us heal is by telling the true history of our people and not honoring and glorifying the people that were responsible for the destruction and domination of the Indigenous people of these lands,” said Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chair Valentin Lopez at the same meeting.

Ultimately, the board decided the discord hit a strong enough note to warrant, in Wetstein’s words, a “pause and pivot.”

“If it’s this divisive, it’s not worth going forward unless we have some good consensus, I think was where the board landed,” he said, paraphrasing the board’s thinking. “We should not be dividing the community over the college; the college should be uniting the community and let’s turn to things that we think can get people behind and united on.”

The latest

But while the board decided now is not the time for a name change, it did follow through in recent weeks on another pledge it made that is related to the issue.

At its Dec. 4 meeting, the trustees formed a new, yet-to-be-named ad hoc committee tasked with exploring support for Indigenous students and Native American studies at the school. Joining Wetstein and Cuevas on the new committee is Rothwell, the board’s new chair.

Among the six initiatives the board has asked – but not limited – the new committee to exploring are establishment of an annual Native American Studies lecture series, a faculty position for the same subject, endowed scholarships for students with that major as well as repatriation to tribal leaders of any Indigenous artifacts the college has in its possession.

“The real hope and optimism that I think the committee will have is to build stronger relationships with Native American communities,” said Wetstein. “If the school is going to be improved and be a better magnet for Native American students and studies, we’re going to need the support and help of the community.”

The new committee also plans to form a robust advisory task force, according to Wetstein, made up of members from various groups across campus including students, faculty, classified staff and a representative from the Cabrillo foundation.

Wetstein said the committee hasn’t had a formal meeting yet, but plans to convene early next year.

In other news

Although the renaming decision garnered much of the public’s attention, Wetstein had his own thoughts on what the school’s top story was in 2023.

After months of planning and advocacy, a joint project by Cabrillo and UC Santa Cruz aimed at establishing a 624-unit student housing complex at Cabrillo’s Aptos campus was awarded $111 million in state funding in September. The remaining $70 million for the effort will be provided by UCSC.

Wetstein said the project is unique because it is situated on a community college campus as opposed to a UC campus where most student housing efforts get placed.

“That’s my highlight of the year, honestly,” he said. “We still have a way to go on it and got a lot of work between now and when it opens. But, gosh, that was a signature moment in the history of the college.”

Wetstein estimated that the groundbreaking could happen in early 2025 and the complex could welcome students by the fall of 2027.