A group of York University students sympathetic to a continuing strike by contract faculty has occupied the school’s senate chambers, and is refusing to leave until a list of demands, including the return of university negotiators to the bargaining table, are met.

The occupation comes 18 days into a strike by roughly 3,000 teaching assistants, grad students and contract faculty at York University.

Talks between CUPE 3903, which represents the strikers, and York resumed briefly on Tuesday, but broke off later in the day.

Karmah Dudin, a political-science undergrad student and member of Students for CUPE 3903, a student-led group that supports the strikers, said the students have been occupying the Senate chambers since 5:30 p.m. Thursday night.

The occupation came as a response to the senate’s refusal to cancel classes across the university until the strike’s conclusion, Dudin said. York’s senate did pass a non-binding advisory motion on Thursday to shutter classes at York’s Glendon campus, but otherwise the university intends to remain open.

In the eyes of Students for CUPE 3903, continuing to hold classes during the strike means students could be penalized for being unable to attend class, and strikers are less able to put pressure on the university.

“We had beforehand — the coalition of Students for CUPE 3903 — decided if there was not going to be a … decision about cancelling classes, we were going to occupy this space and demand the cancellation of classes … by 11:59 p.m. today,” Dudin told the Star.

About 100 members of the group and CUPE 3903 strikers had asked to enter the chambers during the Senate meeting, according to a statement from Students for CUPE 3903, but were blocked by security.

“We started walking in, got pushed back, we pushed in, and we made it through,” Dudin said. “And that’s when the occupation began.”

Since then, Dudin said, students and their supporters have remained inside the senate chambers. About 20 stayed overnight. By early afternoon, their numbers had swelled to about 40, she said. Students occupying the chambers have not been forced out, although private security personnel remained outside the doors and are allowing people to enter and leave.

“The union can’t necessarily do something like this,” she said of the occupation.

York University spokesperson Barbara Joy said the institution would allow the occupiers to remain inside for now.

“I think we’re going to take it one day at a time,” she told a CP24 reporter outside the senate chamber Friday afternoon.

Demands by Students for CUPE 3903 include a complete tuition refund for the year, a call for York University negotiators to resume talks with CUPE 3903’s bargaining team “without proposing concessions,” and a request for answers on personal spending by York University president Rhonda Lenton.

The university claims about 55 per cent of classes have continued to run during the strike, and says it intends to keep it that way.

“We believe it is in the best interests of our students to continue to keep the University open,” read a statement from the senate. The senate has also promised to develop a plan to ensure students whose classes have been cancelled, or who will not cross picket lines, will be accommodated.

CUPE 3903 has expressed its gratitude to students behind the occupation: “All the love to the amazing Students for CUPE 3903, standing up for themselves and their education!” said the union on its official Twitter page.

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Talks between the two sides have led to the union dropping four demands.

The university’s bargaining team has stated that York “has already tabled the best pay and benefits package of its kind in Ontario, and our offer is superior to those that have produced settlements at several other Ontario universities in recent months.”

With files from Kristin Rushowy