Cabrillo College Name Exploration Subcommittee to provide update at Board of Trustees meeting

APTOS, Calif. (KION-TV): Aug. 6, 2023, 6:15 p.m. - Cabrillo College's Name Exploration Subcommittee is scheduled to give a report at the school's Board of Trustees meeting on Monday.

Previously, the board voted to select a name at the Aug. 6 meeting. However, a new recommendation from the subcommittee said the decision should be postponed.

The five name candidate options being considered are Aptos, Cajastaca, Coast Vista, Santa Cruz Coast and Seacliff.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 6:15 p.m. Monday at the Cabrillo College Aptos Campus Horticulture Center at 6500 Soquel Drive in Aptos and can also be view online.

Jan. 28, 2023, at 3:13 p.m.-  After a 6-1  Board of Trustees vote in November to change the name of Cabrillo College, the school is allowing the public to help in the search for a new name.

People can take a survey and submit their recommendations for the school's new name. You can find it here.

A section will also be dedicated to anyone who wants to serve a 25-member Advisory Task Force to help narrow down finalists. The Task Force would meet five times during the spring semester, from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. on  March 10, April 7, April 21, May 5,  and May 19.

“We want to receive broad-based community input on what the new name of Cabrillo College should be,” said Christina Cuevas, Chair of the Board Name Exploration Subcommittee. “Though the timeframe is shorter than the community input we sought during the first two years of this process in a series of community education sessions and dialogues, the survey takes just a couple minutes to complete and can be shared broadly. We want to hear from you!”

Cabrillo College will be getting a new name

During Monday night's board meeting, the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees voted 6-1 to change the school's name.

The college created the Board Name Exploration Subcommittee in 2020 to explore possibly changing the school's name.

Cabrillo College is named after Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. Historians say Cabrillo's legacy is tied to genocide and conquering native and indigenous people throughout the California Coast.

"We conducted rigorous outreach to ensure all voices, demographics, and perspectives had an
opportunity to receive the information and voice an opinion, and prioritize historically underrepresented
and emerging student populations," Christina Cuevas, Board Name Exploration Subcommittee
Chair.

In September 2020, The subcommittee created a Name Exploration Advisory Task Force to get community input and also develop community education.

The task force presented a 60 page report to the Board of Trustees at Monday's meeting. Donna Ziel who is the chairwoman of the Board of Trustees said that it was time to change the name of the college based on the report.

“As stated in the report, the harm caused by colonial expansion is real and it is a harm that represents transgenerational trauma to this day," Ziel said. "As many people pointed out during the community dialogues, now that we know the name Cabrillo does continuing harm to members of the College’s public, we have a responsibility to correct that harm.”

The college said that the Committee that the new name should either be rooted in Cabrillo’s values, or rooted in a geographic touchstone

The Board of Trustees will look to select a new name for the college by Aug. 2023. The college said that the new name of the college is not expected to take place until the start of the 2024-25 fiscal year which would start on July 1, 2024.

If the community wants to read the report then click here.