Students Against Human Trafficking is a recently formed student organization that seeks to bring awareness to the issue of people falling into the grasp of traffickers.  

Beth Boyrer, President of Students Against Human Trafficking, said she realized the issue is important bring awareness to after she randomly viewed an advertisement on her Instagram feed over the summer about it. 

Boyrer said she found statistics that human trafficking increased during the COVID-19 pandemic largely due to people staying home and spending more time online.  She talked about the issue with her roommate, Ashley Moore, who was a former SGA member.  

Moore set up a meeting for Boyrer with Student Affairs and Boyrer began planning. 

“I told them about how I became passionate about human trafficking and how I didn’t feel a lot of things had to do with human trafficking on campus,” Boyrer said. 

Students Against Human Trafficking then became an official student organization and the group hosted two showings of the Global Freedom Summit last Saturday. 

Moore, who became the community liaison for Students Against Human Trafficking, said if a student would like to be a part of the organization they can access the organization on Herdlink or email her or Boyrer. 

“From there, we would send them training to do and our information about meeting times,” Moore said in an email.  

Boyrer said the organization would love to partner with others on campus. She said she has connections with the Women and Gender Center and the Wellness Center as well. 

Currently there are 12 members of the organization, one of which is Candace Layne. Layne is the Director of the Counseling Center and serves as the staff advisor of the group.  

“I was approached by Ashley and Beth to be advisor, “ Layne said in an email. “I’m really glad they asked and I love being a staff member that’s involved.” 

 Boyrer said folks can spread awareness through social media or by calling the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1 (888)-373-7888 or 911 if they encounter any scenario of human trafficking.   

Jonathan Still can be contacted at [email protected].