After months of study and debate, a Cabrillo College subcommittee is recommending that the college change its name, away from Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo– who contributed to the colonization of Native Americans. The recommendation will be voted on by the college’s Board of Trustees Nov. 14.
The committee set a goal of selecting a new name by August 2023, and using it by the start of the fiscal year. According to administrators of other community colleges, the overall cost associated with name changes can range from $400,000 to $800,000.
In the report they explain the timeline and reasoning behind this consideration on the potential name change. “Cabrillo College received a request to rename the College in response to widespread social unrest in the United States and critical analysis of the namesake of the College”. The subcommittee then covers specific guiding principles during this exploration, emphasizing that this consideration should be aligned with the College’s mission and vision statements. “Empowering students to be responsible world citizens. Promoting a commitment to quality and equity. Fostering diversity and equal opportunity.”
The subcommittee presents multiple statistics found in surveys done throughout this process. A survey was opened following the Fall community dialogues, of the 818 respondents; 304 of those responses were from donors to Cabrillo College, 256 current students and 125 current employees. It’s also worth noting that 60.5% of the respondents were white, while 5.6% were Native American.
According to the survey, “younger folks are more likely to support a College name change and older folks much more resistant to that kind of change.” Along with an over sampling of “white, older women” in comparison to men and Hispanics. In one of the open questions, 67% of Native American respondents were in support of the name change.
Valentin Lopez, the chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band spoke to Lookout Santa Cruz, saying, “I’m very happy about the recommendation. To honor a person like that, to name a school after him, is absolutely wrong.”
The potential costs were weighed by; explicit and implicit costs, within these costs are skunk costs. Skunk costs refer to costs that are already factored into the annual budget. Within these explicit costs are a new website domain name which could cost $10 to $20 a year. Skunk costs in these explicit costs include re-printing letterhead, business cards and other printed materials.
Potential implicit costs would involve “time devoted to bids for new signs, changing contracts to reflect the new name of the College, the time and effort required to do Management Information System (MIS) upgrades, and website changes.” Within explicit costs there are skunk costs such as contract renewal.
This subcommittee is made up of Trustees Christina Cuevas (Chair) and Adam Spickler, student Trustee Amidia Frederick who was succeeded by Krystal Buenrostro, and Matthew Wetstein (President of Cabrillo College).
Cabrillo College was named after Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1959 because he was considered a neutral, as he had no connection to Santa Cruz county.
The subcommittee’s full report is available on the Trustees’ official webpage, linked here:
Report of the Cabrillo College Name Exploration Subcommittee
