Quick Take
Cabrillo College is trimming its budget as pandemic-era funding ends and costs rise. President Matt Wetstein said there are no immediate plans for layoffs, but the college will cut about 70 of its 1,394 classes as it opts not to replace some retiring faculty.
Cabrillo College officials say they’re beginning to implement a plan to balance their $87 million budget amid changes in state funding and rising costs this year that caused a deficit of about $4.3 million.
President Matt Wetstein told Lookout that, at this point, the largest savings – of about $1.7 million – will come from not replacing 11 faculty members who are retiring. For the time being, the college won’t be laying off employees.
Wetstein said Cabrillo has essentially been funded at a level of enrollment higher than it actually has because the college has qualified for extra funding over the past several years due to the local natural disasters that have displaced students and potential students. Additionally, if the college doesn’t meet a certain number of students seeking degrees and a certain percentage of low-income students, it won’t receive a cost-of-living adjustment that helps cover rising costs.
Wetstein said that formula harms Cabrillo College – and many other coastal colleges – as it has a larger number of students over age 50 and therefore fewer students seeking to complete degrees. The coastal colleges also have higher costs of living compared to inland colleges.
So, if the college is flat-funded going into next year and doesn’t get that cost-of-living adjustment increase, rising costs for health care, salary adjustments and utilities will take a larger share of the budget. Wetstein said those factors start to restrict and shrink how many staff members the college can support.
“It’s a real existential threat for the college because of the way the formula is structured,” he said.
On Wednesday, Wetstein said the college’s planning and budget committees developed plans to address the deficit, including not filling the faculty vacancies, not filling three classified positions, making 6% reductions in operating expenses and supplies and reducing overtime by 75%.
He said the committees discussed shutting down a building, which could save about $20,000 in utilities annually, and canceling a public art mural for another $20,000. As a last resort, the committees discussed a week of furlough days for managers, saving about $166,000.
The college hopes to avoid some spending cuts by bringing in new revenue sources that could total about $900,000, including increasing leases and hosting events like comic book conventions or Sunday flea markets. The college is also expecting a greater income from its investment pool of funds because interest rates were high.
Wetstein said the reductions, including not replacing retiring faculty, will be taking place now and through the end of the academic year. He also still hopes that the college qualifies for the emergency conditions allowance it had been receiving due to natural disasters such as 2020’s CZU fire and Pajaro River levee breach in March 2023. Cabrillo will find out in January if it gets an extension on the funding, but it will still likely have to make the cuts.
“When we walk in the door July 1 for the 2025-26 budget, we should have a budget that we’re planning $4.3 million lower than what we budgeted this current year,” he said.
Among the faculty positions that are retiring, he said, there are three who teach English, three math and one each of art, philosophy, history and biology, plus one counselor. He said that roughly translates to cutting about 70 of the college’s 1,394 classes.
Still, by the end of the retirements, Wetstein said the college will still have 14 more faculty than it is obligated to have by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Cabrillo has about 8,500 full-time equivalent students this year – 200 more than it reported last year.
Despite the budget challenges, Cabrillo College has had positive developments this year. The college is moving forward with a joint housing project with UC Santa Cruz on the college’s Aptos campus. Cabrillo was also recently named best community college in California in a study released by marketing company SmartAsset.
Wetstein said the college expects the project’s groundbreaking will occur in November or December of next year, and after about two years of construction, the housing will be ready for occupancy in fall of 2027.
He added that the budget deficit has no impact on the project.
“We’re housing-rich and more sort of cash-poor on the operations of our normal budget,” he said. “So the fact that we landed the grant money for that project is the real driver of that project, and that’s a state investment in building affordable housing on college campuses. I think it’s a smart investment.”
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