Students for a Free Cooper Union held a press conference Tuesday afternoon to address their demands to the media, reiterating their view that Cooper Union remain a free, non-tuition-charging institution.

A crowd of roughly 150 students, protesters and members of the press gathered outside of the Foundation Building to support student occupiers on the building’s eighth floor, who have continued to hold the space since noon Monday.

“We will not leave until we are formally asked to leave the building,” said Cooper Union senior Rachel Appel, a Students for a Free Cooper Union spokesperson.

Appel and fellow spokesperson Audrey Snyder restated the student occupation’s three primary demands: a reaffirmation by the Cooper Union administration of the school’s commitment to free education; increased accountability and transparency from the board of trustees, including the appointment of student and faculty members to the board; and the removal of Cooper Union President Jamshed Bharucha.

On Monday evening, Students for a Free Cooper Union released a “Undergraduate Tuition Committee” report, obtained anonymously, that explores the future implementation of tuition at Cooper Union’s Nerken School of Engineering.

“We felt that this would be our last opportunity to save Cooper from charging students,” Appel said. “All of our demands have been met with resistance and recourse. We felt the occupation and our protesting was the only way we could make our voices heard.”

Five minutes before the press conference’s scheduled start time of 2:30 p.m., Bharucha sent an email to the school community that addressed the occupation for the first time and stated that the administration’s priority is “the safety of our students.”

“Our approach in the coming days will continue to be one of discourse — engaging in a dialog  with the students,” Bharucha wrote.

A group of faculty members also spoke at the press conference, throwing their support behind the school’s tuition-free mission without directly supporting the occupiers. Appel, however, said Students for a Free Cooper Union appreciated the “support and solidarity [of] the faculty.”