APTOS >> After leading one of Santa Cruz County’s premier higher education institutions for the better part of a decade, Cabrillo College President and Superintendent Matt Wetstein announced Monday that he will retire at the end of the year.

Wetstein, who joined Cabrillo in 2018, intends to stay in his role through Dec. 31 in an effort to support the school’s Board of Trustees as it prepares to embark on a search for his replacement.

“Cabrillo College is a special place in a vibrant region,” Wetstein said in a release from the local community college. “The faculty and staff at Cabrillo are amazing and have built a caring culture for our students. I have thoroughly enjoyed the time that I have served as its leader, but after 29 years of service to public higher education from political science teaching to administrative leadership, I am looking forward to spending more time with my wife Cindy and traveling. I will always cherish the friendships I have made at Cabrillo and in the Santa Cruz County community.”

Once retired, Wetstein plans to relocate to Stockton where he spent years as an educator and administrative leader, and where he and his wife own a home.

Among Wetstein’s notable achievements in his more than seven years at Cabrillo are facilitating emergency shelters and operations during the CZU Lightning Complex fires, COVID-19 pandemic and Pajaro floods in 2023, establishment of Cabrillo as a Hispanic Serving Institution, directing grant initiatives that brought in millions for various education, career development and housing programs, as well as guiding the establishment of murals, sculptures and performing arts events at Cabrillo’s Aptos and Watsonville campuses.

Wetstein also played an integral role in development of Cabrillo’s 624-bed, $111.7 million affordable student housing project alongside UC Santa Cruz, which is on schedule to break ground at the Aptos campus in the fall. He has also served on a statewide task force focused on combating housing needs, food insecurity and college affordability that has shaped state legislation.

“Guided by his commitment to the values of compassion, gratitude and humility, Matt has contributed so much to Cabrillo College and the surrounding community during his tenure here,” Cabrillo Governing Board Chair Christina Cuevas said in the release. “We will miss him, but know that in his time at Cabrillo, he made the College and the community it serves, a much better place.”

Cuevas served alongside Wetstein on the Name Exploration Subcommittee, which was created by the board after it was revealed that the school’s namesake, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, enslaved and subjugated native people during expeditions in the 16th century. The subcommittee first spearheaded a fact-finding and public education campaign in 2020 and eventually, the process of renaming the school after the board approved the action in 2022.

But the board’s decision proved controversial and despite several more rounds of listening sessions and public engagements, the renaming decision was tabled until at least 2028.

Wetstein arrived at Cabrillo with his backpack of experience already quite full. Prior to his Santa Cruz County tenure, he served for six years as assistant superintendent and vice president of instruction and planning at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton. Before that, he taught political science at Delta while serving as the school’s dean of planning and research.

He is also an accomplished writer and has co-authored three books on the Canadian Supreme Court, one book on abortion politics in the United States and has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles on judicial behavior, abortion politics and community college student success.

The search for Wetstein’s replacement will be guided by a search committee appointed by the board, with the intention of hiring someone that can begin in January.