After eight years of service, Cabrillo’s president, Matt Wetstein, announced his retirement last February, with his final day in office being the 31st of Dec.

Despite his recent announcement, Cabrillo’s board of supervisors still has not chosen a successor. Whilst Wetstein won’t be involved in the process of choosing a successor, he knows what qualities he’d like to see in the College’s next president.

“I think somebody who’s gonna keep progress growing on these major projects, like the housing project, somebody who’s gonna sustain some of the progress on Hispanic serving institution efforts,” He said.

The affordable housing project, known officially as the Cabrillo-UCSC Joint Affordable Housing Project, has been in the works since 2022 and is expected to be finished by the fall semester of 2027. It’s one of the things Wetstein has overseen during his tenure at Cabrillo.

“It’ll probably get passed off to the next president. I hope to get to a point where it’s at the groundbreaking in the fall semester so that construction will have started, and the building will go vertical the following year,” he said.

The housing project has been one of the most significant changes for Cabrillo during his time as President. He expressed that awareness around housing was one of the many things that changed over the course of his career, stating:

“I think one of the most important things was awareness of student housing and basic needs and providing support around those concerns. I think the legislature stepped up on allocating specific grant dollars for basic needs support. The housing allocation that came through the legislature 3 years ago was a real pivot, and I think housing is issue number one for more people in this county.”

When asked what changes he felt he had brought to the college, he responded:

“I think besides the housing project, I’m pretty proud of that, and our ability to get the grant money. I’m also gratified by the amount of work we’ve been able to do on the hispanic serving task force and orient the college and our faculty towards serving this as a hispanic institution. It’s getting to a point where I feel like we’re moving beyond just creating access for students and really thinking about how we can serve students to get to more equitable completion rates.”

“I’m proud of the way this college has had graduation rates grow to the point where more than 50% of our graduates are hispanic, and that number outpaces their total enrollment in the college. I think that’s a real net positive about how the college has responded to serving our community,” He continued, expressing accomplishments the college has made in recent years. Wetstein added.

Accomplishments and changes haven’t been the only thing sticking out for the current Cabrillo President. There have been many crises over the past few years, with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Pajaro floods in 2023, and other local natural disasters affecting students.

In regards to the learning curve when addressing these challenges, he stated:

“Learning how to manage emergency or crisis situations, so COVID represents that, the CCU fires, the floods in Pajaro, just positioning the college to be a responsive community partner. If the county asks for help as a community agency that might set up a relief site or evacuation shelter, we respond in a way that’s humane, compassionate, and serving our people.”

Natural disasters haven’t been the only thing Cabrillo has had to deal with. Wetstein recalls that former Governor Jerry Brown and former Chancellor of UCSC, George Blumenthal, never treated the district fairly in terms of funding.

“I’m still presenting data and researching how flawed it is as a funding formula, so that’s been a challenge,” he said.

Currently, Wetstein has eight months until his retirement, but whilst the board of trustees searches for a new president during that time, students at the Aptos campus have their own ideas for what they would like to see in a new leader for Cabrillo.

Noah Puga, a current Cabrillo student, wants better access to food on campus, stating,

“I would like a free food option for people here on campus who can’t afford food. I know they run the food bank every week, but an option for already prepped food so we don’t have to go home and cook it”.

Anii Hoppis is another student wanting fair pay for chefs at Cabrillo, expressing a need for better pay for culinary students like themself, stating:

“All the culinary classes are free labor for the school as well. We do a catering class, which is over 24 hours a week, and all we do is cater. I tried to host a campus wedding, which cost 10,000 dollars. The students don’t see a drop of that. We do 24 hours a week of unpaid labor that the school gets 10k every week for every day of the fall semester and half of the spring semester”.

They also went on to express a need for better accessibility for students with disabilities due to Cabrillo’s infrastructure, which makes it hard for those with mobility aids to get to their classes. They went on to say, “I’d like there to be better disability vans for access to higher parts of campus because I had a horticulture class and couldn’t get to that part of campus. I’d also like better pay for the cafeteria employees as well.”

Hoppis isn’t alone in wanting better accessibility on campus; another student, Lee Wenzel, wishes for the exact change.

“I have a friend who’s in a wheelchair, and he can’t go to the gym here cause it’s not super accessible to him. Also, the gym hours suck. They should change that.” Wenzel said.

Westein’s final message to students is to keep celebrating the accomplishments of current and past Cabrillo students.

“Keep doing amazing things. I was describing it to another reporter: the memories that stand out, and often for me, it’s the interactions I get to have with individual students who’ve done amazing things,” he said.