MEDFORD--25 Tufts students barricaded themselves inside a key campus administrative building yesterday, vowing to stay until the university's president strengthens a non-discrimination policy.

As of early this morning, 16 protestors were occupying Bendetson Hall, which is in the center of campus, despite threats of arrest from police.

The students came prepared with enough food and water to last through the week. They entered the building around 9 a.m., according to witnesses, and gave Tufts staffers a type-written note explaining the reasons for the sit-in. They also gave displaced staff members a batch of home-made cookies.

Their letter demands that university president John DiBiaggio clarify and strengthen the school's nondiscrimination policy.

The takeover is the latest episode in a yearlong debate over whether a bisexual student was unfairly denied a leadership role in the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF).

In April, Tufts junior Julie Catalano filed a charge of discrimination against the TCF in Tufts' student court. Catalano, who is bisexual, had applied for a leadership position in the TCF but was denied. The TCF countered that Catalano's rejection was only based on her belief that homosexuality is not unacceptable, not on her sexual identity itself.

On Oct. 16, the Tufts Community Union Judiciary interpreted the university's nondiscrimination policy as permitting discrimination based on belief. In response, critics formed a new group, Tufts Students Against Discrimination (TSAD), which organized yesterday's takeover.

TSAD demands that DiBaggio make a clear statement in support of the nondiscrimination rule and that Tufts ban discrimination based on belief.