In response to pro-Palestinian protesters refusing to settle on a compromise, Tufts University is threatening to issue trespass violations and bar seniors from walking at commencement if the encampment grows further.

Students representing the protesters and a faculty member they selected met with a pair of university deans on “two separate occasions” on Tuesday, with both sides looking to make amends as the encampment grows on the Medford campus.

“Regrettably, despite our best efforts to find a solution, the protesters have refused our offers and have continued to escalate matters by expanding the encampment on the academic quad,” university leadership said in an evening letter to the community.

In the letter signed by President Sunil Kumar, officials highlighted that students declined to discuss proposals with the deans of the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and that they’d rather meet in person with the president, the chief investment officer and members of the board of trustees.

“The university agreed to such a meeting in writing on the condition that the encampment end first and that the protesters agree not to disrupt Commencement,” the letter states. “This offer, which remains on the table, was rejected, and the meeting ended without an agreement.”

Leadership wrote it’s looking to “avoid the confrontations seen at other universities,” such as Emerson and Northeastern locally, and Columbia, nationally.

“We will be issuing a no trespass order to the protesters,” the letter states. “Tufts students who do not vacate the space will be subject to the Community Standards processes which may result in suspension or other sanctions. For seniors, this may include not participating in senior week activities or Commencement. It is our strong desire that it does not come to this, and the protesters choose to leave voluntarily.”

Tuesday’s stalemate comes after Kumar issued a letter Sunday about how university leadership has balanced “our students’ right to protest with enforcing our conduct policies” and that “students have been sanctioned when protests affected public safety.”

Kumar on Sunday called for the end to the encampment in order for officials to focus on commencement preparations, some of which have been delayed, he said.

More than a hundred pro-Palestinian protesters took their demands that Tufts divest from Israel and call for a ceasefire in Gaza to campus last Friday, vandalizing school property with explicit messages including “F*** the trustees.”

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