Dozens of New York University students and community members have been occupying the Kimmel Center for University Life since yesterday evening, demanding that the school stop making applicants disclose whether they've ever been convicted of a crime.

Like many universities, NYU uses the Common Application, which requires applicants to check a box if they have ever been found guilty or convicted of a crime. The advocates currently staging a sit-in at the student center are demanding that the school go completely "box blind," meaning that it would opt out of receiving that data from the Common Application.

Some two dozen students stayed in the Kimmel Center overnight, though it technically closed at midnight. They were told that they might face disciplinary action by staying all night, as they would be trespassing, and public safety officers stationed themselves by the doors to the center and at the top of the stairs near the turnstiles leading to the restrooms. According to Emma Pliskin, a 2015 NYU alumna and an organizer with the Incarceration to Education Coalition (IEC), the officers prevented students from accessing the restrooms, and would not let them back in the building if they left to use a restroom elsewhere.

"We want to be as respectful and as flexible as possible when dealing with this occupation," Senior Vice President of Student Affairs Marc Wais told students last night. "But like I said before, this building closes at midnight, and we will be shutting it down at midnight. NYU students that choose to stay in the building could potentially face disciplinary action for trespassing."

A second group of students and advocates was stationed just outside the doors to the center. Together with those inside, they chanted and sang until about 1:30 a.m., at which point those outside dispersed, and those indoors tried to get some sleep.

Right now, the student center is open for the day, and those who stayed overnight have gone home to shower, eat, and get some rest, Pliskin said. Meanwhile, another 10 or 15 students are holding down the fort.

IEC was established in 2013 by a group of formerly incarcerated NYU students and their allies, and has since been pushing the university to "abolish the box." This winter, following IEC action, the university asked the Common Application to study the value of asking applicants to reveal their criminal records, but activists say that doesn't go far enough, as studies have already shown that having the box on college applications doesn't make campuses any safer—and that education in fact reduces recidivism rates.

"We understand the temptation to do a study, and we understand that a lot of parents are very concerned about sending their students to the city and that going to college in general is frightening for a lot of parents," Pliskin told Gothamist. "While we recognize that evidence-based policy is important, we feel that there is already evidence, and we feel that the administration's assertion that more research is necessary is actually a stalling tactic to prevent them from taking any immediate action."

Join @IEC_NYU in Kimmel! Thank u for using your voices to support the oppressed! pic.twitter.com/hQfteSJEi7 — Sheba Rivera (@shebasocial) March 25, 2016



Currently, NYU admissions officers do two readings of applications: one that is "box-blind," and a second that includes whether or not an applicant has checked that box. That practice is specific to undergraduate admissions: the Silver School of Social Work and the Wagner School of Public Service do not ask applicants to disclose whether they've ever been convicted of a crime. Legislation enacted last summer prohibits New York City employers from discriminating against applicants with criminal records, and there's currently a bill before the state senate that would ban the box in education.

The students staging the sit-in don't yet know whether they'll spend another night: as of 2 p.m. today, Wais had informed them that NYU has set up a meeting next Tuesday with IEC and representatives from the Common Application, contingent upon the activists vacating the premises. The center is open until midnight, but, according to audio taken by those present in the Kimmel Center, Wais said that they will be subject to disciplinary action if they stay past 4 p.m.. IEC is currently debating whether to accept this deal, but says it's not a real response to their demand for NYU to abolish the box, as there's no way to know that real change will follow that meeting.

NYU did not respond to request for comment.