Getting to know Enclave, the student group behind the protest

Brad West, a sophomore political science major and the president of Chapman Democrats, one of the clubs involved in new campus group Enclave, protests Feb. 24.

The sit-in at the Santa Ana Civic Center did not go how new campus group Enclave intended, said Juan Bustillo, and one of the co-directors of the group.

Although the Facebook event for the sit-in said that 97 people had marked themselves as “interested” in the event and 22 had marked themselves as “going,” about 10 people total attended. Four were Chapman students.

“The county is still going forward with all of their plans, we got awareness out there, but it didn’t have as much of as effect as we wanted,” Bustillo, a sophomore political science and screenwriting major said. “We definitely realize that the homelessness issue, as important as it is, is not a sexy issue. We were asking students to become involved with individuals who they have never met before, and will never meet.”

The day after President Donald Trump was elected, Bustillo and sophomore political science major Dany Zavala conceptualized the group, which will have its first official meeting Feb. 27.

The group aims to help organize social justice clubs like the Black Student Union, Chapman Democrats and the Muslim Student Association, and ensure that club events are not scheduled on the same day.

“We saw that the day after the election, there was the Asian Pacific Student Association fair and there was also the student protest,” Bustillo said. “So even though students wanted to be a part of both events because they were really cool events, the fact that they were in the same place at the same time diverted attention and lessened the power of both of them.”

The group, which does not plan to register as an official club with the university, wants to remain as independent from the school as possible – even though this means that they will not be able to hang posters or advertise on campus.

“(We want to) use funding, hopefully, from the individual member organizations to help us out,” Bustillo said. “A lot of clubs have announcements at the beginning of their meetings, so they can announce stuff like that. And word of mouth is incredibly effective.”