New Cabrillo College president Jenn Capps’ No. 1 goal is to increase access

With just over a month on the job, Cabrillo College President Jenn Capps has a lot on her hands. 

While getting her bearings in her new community, she’s figuring out how to address declining enrollment trends, a budget deficit, staff concerns about on-campus racism and an onslaught of federal changes to higher education funding and programs. Capps said although these challenges won’t be solved overnight, she’s leaning into those hard things. One area she plans to bring improvements to in the near future is college access. 

“I want going to college to be as easy as putting something in your cart and clicking a button,” she said. “It should be easy to say, ‘I want to get a degree,’ without wondering how much it costs, whether you’re eligible or where to start.”

Capps was hired to replace Matt Wetstein, and her first day on the job was Jan. 20. As provost and vice president of academic affairs at Cal Poly Humboldt for five years, she led the transition from a state university to the third polytechnic in the California State University system. The redesignation led to increased enrollment and brought in more than $450 million in state funds for new academic programming and infrastructure improvements. 

Capps started her career as a counseling psychologist after earning her doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado. Capps eventually moved into higher education leadership roles, such as college dean at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she lived for 24 years. 

In recent years, she occasionally visited her best friend in Santa Cruz County, where she learned about Cabrillo. When she saw the president’s job open up, she hopped on the opportunity. After a big move with her two “big, goofy mutts,” Chester and Hamish, she said she’s already developing new routines, like longboarding at least once or twice a week. 

As she wraps up her meet-and-greet phase with the school and the wider county community, Capps said she’s heard concerns about the federal government, immigration enforcement, and support for students and staff. 

“A big topic of conversation right now is the federal climate and concerns about ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and how we create a safe environment for our students,” she said. “We want to do everything we can to safeguard our students and families, particularly our Latine, Latinx and undocumented community members.”

Just weeks after she started, the governing board prohibited the use of any of its facilities or properties for the federal government’s immigration enforcement activities. The college affirmed that undocumented students and their families are “entitled to every opportunity to succeed.” Cabrillo’s trustees said they’re proud that the college acted to ensure community members are informed about their rights if they encounter immigration officers. 

During her first month on the job, Capps took in a recent campus climate survey that found that 62% of Black employees said they had experienced microaggressions or targeted harassment that challenged their confidence and sense of inclusion on the campus. The report was cited during last week’s governing board meeting, as labor groups and Black employees criticized the board and trustee Steve Trujillo after he made racist comments. 

“I don’t want anyone on my campus to experience harm. And that’s what’s been happening,” she said. “My way is not to shrink back from the hard stuff, but to step forward into it.”

Capps told Lookout that she doesn’t have a “perfect 10-step plan to fix” these issues, but that she wants to work with the college community to make the campus better. 

In addition to ensuring students and staff feel safe and supported, one of Capps’ main goals is to expand access to campus. While it’s just an idea at this point, she said she’s excited about starting a degree pathway at the college’s Watsonville Center. Currently, students can start degrees there, but they have to take courses at the main campus in Aptos to finish them. By having a degree pathway in Watsonville, students would be able to finish their entire degree there without having to take courses in Aptos. 

Capps also hopes to improve access to Cabrillo by expanding high-demand programs like nursing and dental hygiene. She said the school’s main barrier is the expensive medical equipment that those pathways need. 

“Sometimes we have to spend a little to get that enrollment up,” she said. 

It’s a delicate balance because the college is also addressing a structural deficit. Capps told Lookout that she’s working with administrators to understand the status of the budget and whether they’re going to have to implement layoffs this year. She said she’s not willing to kick the can down the road on fixing the college’s finances. 

Finally, Lookout asked Capps for her thoughts on the college’s name change project. From about 2020 to 2023, Cabrillo officials explored whether to change the school’s name. The governing board voted to move forward, but after receiving intense pushback from a range of alumni and donors, it ultimately decided to postpone any discussion of it until 2028. 

“Every time I think I understand a perspective, I hear a different one on the topic,” she said, but declined to comment further, because she’s “very much in the listening phase” on the issue. 

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.