The picket line came days after Dan Driscoll, the vice president of the university’s human resources department, sent an email to student workers saying that those who did not return to work by Friday were not guaranteed jobs next semester.
The widely circulated email sparked outrage and accusations that the university was attempting to retaliate against strikers.
Wilma B. Liebman, a former chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board, said the university seemed to be putting undue pressure on student workers by implying they were guaranteed to keep their jobs only if they were to quit striking now.
“To me, it’s a way of creating fear and doubt and coercing them, essentially, because of that fear and doubt, to abandon the strike,” Ms. Liebman said.