Quick Take
To move away from the divisiveness of the Cabrillo College name-change discussion, the school's governing board is putting a pause on the topic until at least 2028. College leaders are moving forward with educational and support initiatives for Indigenous students and Native American studies.
The divisiveness of the renaming process of Cabrillo College this past year surprised college officials and community members, including President Matt Wetstein. Because of it, the college postponed its discussion on the name change until at least 2028.
“It’s just too divisive to talk about,” said Wetstein. “If the conversation’s about the name change, and people are set in their ways about no or yes on that position, bridging that dialogue is hard.”
Some felt that a name change was an insult to the college’s achievements, while many said the name honors someone – a 16th-century European who profited from enslavement of Indigenous Guatemalan people – who doesn’t represent the good values the college stands for.
Donors threatened to pull their contributions if the college changed its name, and students said they were appalled and felt unsafe that some were so adamant about keeping the name.
Although the college’s governing board originally planned to select a new name this past August, a majority of the board members agreed in September to postpone the discussion and process until at least 2028. Part of their vote included creating an ad hoc committee that would focus on creating educational and support initiatives for Indigenous students – which they officially created at their Dec. 6 board meeting.
Wetstein said that after the September board meeting, the college has taken a breather from the intensity of the past year. Officials haven’t planned any meetings to encourage dialogue in the community about the name-change process. But they’re ready to move forward on other projects.
“I think that board members, and the entire college and community have kind of stepped back and said, ‘Let’s pause and let’s focus on these other things,’” he said.
The ad hoc committee, made up of board members Dan Rothwell and Christina Cuevas, will start meeting in an effort to understand the community’s needs and come up with recommendations. One of the projects Wetstein is looking forward to starting sooner than later is an annual Native American studies lecture series.
And now that the board decided to postpone the renaming conversation, the opponents of the name change and the supporters of the name change are at a standstill.
Linda Burroughs, a former Cabrillo College Foundation board president and current Santa Cruz Symphony board president, was a vocal opponent of the name change. Burroughs said she and several others who oppose the name change started to organize but because of the decision to delay, they’ve put their plans – which she declined to share – on hold.
“We just decided, well, there’s no real urgency now to do anything significant,” she said. “So a lot of the plans that were in process – for whatever we were going to be doing – came to a halt.”
Cabrillo College lecturer John Govsky, who made the initial name-change proposal and has been a vocal supporter, said he’s also taking a breather before taking any next steps.
“[I’m] waiting for the dust to settle,” he said. “And so now I’m gonna give it some thought. I’ve talked to a lot of people, but [the delay] really took the wind out of our sails.”
He added that he’s hopeful about the initiatives to support Indigenous students and to grow Native American studies at the college, but the project feels like a consolation.
Wetstein said the ad hoc committee will start to plan meetings and priorities in early 2024 and has already started to sign up representatives from different stakeholder groups. The committee has representatives from the student body, classified staff, faculty and the Cabrillo College Foundation.
Wetstein added there might be a larger advisory group that would also include representatives from the Native American community and others interested in participating.
The committee will focus on initiatives including creating a Native American lecture series, establishing a faculty position in Indigenous and Native American studies that could potentially be endowed, developing endowed scholarships for students majoring in Indigenous and Native American studies and exploring the establishment of a multicultural center for the college.
In addition, committee members will focus on the repatriation of any Indigenous archaeological artifacts the college has to the corresponding tribal groups.
The committee and representatives will create recommendations for the board’s consideration and report regularly to the board on their progress.
Wetstein said the endowed faculty position is likely the most challenging as the college would need to figure out how to fund it – which could cost as much as $3 to $4 million for a $150,000-per-year faculty position.
“That’s a huge task,” he said.
The endowment would fund the position forever. Wetstein said the 4% earned every year on the endowed investment would generate about $160,000 to cover the salary and benefits.
A new position also needs to go through an annual process where the faculty senate identifies priority faculty, administration assesses costs and then by November or December, the governing board approves or rejects a priority list of new faculty hires.
If there’s an endowment, the funding for the position wouldn’t need to come from the general fund. Without an endowment, the position would be funded through the general fund.
Depending on the route that the governing board eventually approves, a faculty member focused on Native American studies could start as early as fall 2024, he said.
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