Dedicated to people’s free expression regardless of status, the Secret Drawer Society (SDS) founded by Hayley Pugh and Alex Howley seeks to provide an active platform to engage all university members.

“I wanted a place where there was a sense of support for everyone on campus,” Pugh, current president of SDS. “A place where actions and thoughts could be expressed, communicated, and brought to life.”

SDS’s cause largely originated from the words of Fall 2016 guest speaker Cornell West, their then-advisor Dr. Yvonne Villanueva-Russell, and the impact Donald Trump had winning the US election.

When faced with the uncertainty of the organization’s formation, Pugh received help from Howley and Student Organizations Assistant Director Jeremy Sippel to piece together technical details that were necessary hurdles to create the SDS.

“Mostly not knowing what steps to take was the hardest to overcome,” Pugh said. “There were so many great ideas but not a good system to put them into action when we first started to trying to form.”

The organization’s name comes from Howley’s high school experience in which a hidden drawer in the library was used by students to anonymously place topics for future discussion, informing them on viewpoints unlike their own.

Since its creation, the SDS has gained 88 members and are participating in their first event “Break The Ice” hosted by university president Ray Keck Oct. 24. Both are steps towards the organization becoming known around campus as a group of individuals pushing for changes in society.

“Before I joined the Secret Drawer Society, I knew very little about the organization’s purpose and what they believed in, but the mystery of it is exactly what caught my attention and made me want to join,” Brianna S. Chapman, vice president of the Secret Drawer Society, said. “Now that I know more about what SDS stands for and what we want to become, this organization has inspired me to reach out to more people and expand on various social concepts that bring people together.”

The organization is open to students, faculty, and staff, and to contact them, interested people need to send their CWID and name to [email protected].