Thousands of faculty at New Jersey’s Rutgers University went on an indefinite strike Monday, sending its campuses into complete chaos and putting most classes on pause for the first time in the school’s 256-year history.

Three unions — representing about 9,000 Rutgers University staff members — were involved in the strike, which will impact some 67,000 students statewide.

Faculty on strike marched in front of the nursing school and law school in Newark, carrying signs reading, “We R on strike for a better Rutgers” and “We R on strike for a livable wage” while chanting, “We are picketing, are you listening?”

Graduate workers, which are among the groups on strike, are hoping their actions eventually get them a livable wage. 

Dominique Rocker, a 32-year-old American Studies PhD student, told The Post that part of the reason negotiations haven’t gotten anywhere is that Rutgers refuses to pay workers like her fairly.

“So right now, my pay is $31,000 for the year, and a livable wage at minimum is $47,000 in the state of New Jersey. So as you can tell, that’s a big discrepancy,” Rocker said. “So that’s the reason why I’m out here because I love students. I love teaching, but I can’t do the work effectively if I have to have three, four other jobs to pay my bills.” 

While some professors may continue to teach, for the most part they will be holding strong on the picket line, according to Rocker. 

“For the most part, we are striking, so we’re not holding classes or we’re not holding them in the building. If we’re teaching it’s teaching style outside on the picket,” Rocker explained. 

While some professors sent out emails Sunday evening to their students saying they will not be updating their campus websites or answering emails during the duration of the strike, others have left students in the dark about when they will get back grades or hear about upcoming classes. 

Despite the confusion, many students have gotten behind the unions, refusing to cross the picket line and attend classes that are still being held.

Some have even signed an online pledge stating: “If a strike occurs, we respect that all persons (students, faculty, or staff) have a right to make a decision to participate or not participate in the strike and that we will not retaliate against either decision.”

George Olynyk, a 21-year-old senior finance major, said his professors didn’t give a reason behind the strike, but noted it was a “nice little break” from his studies. 

“I think it’s justified,” he said. “They’re doing what they want to get what they want. I have no problem with that.” 

Another finance major, Angelo Cascio, 21, said he hoped the strike wouldn’t go on long enough to jeopardize getting the credits he needs to stay on track to graduate in December. 

“I’d like one last semester to just get my credits in so I can get that piece of paper to go into the real world. I don’t know what employers will say if I don’t graduate because of all this? But we’ll see where it goes. We’ll see how long it lasts,” Cascio said. 

Juwan Ash, a 21-year-old finance major said while he’s happy classes were canceled so he could take advantage of the beautiful spring day and play soccer, he isn’t mad at his professors for striking since the university pays them so poorly. 

“They should be fighting for more pay to be honest, because they’re underpaid and they need more,” Ash said. “It’s kind of unfair. It’s f—ed up.”

The Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents part-time lecturers; the AAUP-AFT, representing full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and counselors; and the AAUP-BHSNJ, for staff in the health and science departments, called for the strike on Sunday following 10 months of failed negotiations with the university.

The three unions began their strike at 9 a.m. Monday, telling thousands of faculty members in an email to “join the picket lines and refuse to conduct teaching, research, and other business as usual at Rutgers.” 

Union members protesting are planning to rally in shifts through Friday, attending demonstrations from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday. 

The historic strike has halted classes for the first time in the university’s history across all three campuses in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick and at the university’s medical school, according to union officials.

Rutgers officials have painted a contrasting image of the strike compared to the union and have urged students to continue with their studies as usual, noting on their website, “Many classes will continue to meet during the strike.”

The strike comes as the overwhelming majority — some 94% of faculty members across the three labor organizations — voted to authorize the action last month, signaling to university officials that they were serious about their intention to cease working if negotiations continued to stall.

According to the union, contract negotiations have been at a standstill since July, with the university failing to produce substantive proposals to address their core demands — salary increases, greater job security for adjunct faculty and guaranteed funding for graduate students, among others.

Union leaders said faculty members at the medical and other health sciences schools will continue performing essential research and patient care but will stop performing their duties that do not impact patient health and safety.

Despite the unions insisting that the university has not made valid efforts to meet its goals, Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway said Sunday he believed the two sides are close to an agreement and will continue to negotiate.

Holloway has indicated in an email to students that he will seek a court order to halt the strike, saying Rutgers “would have no choice” other than seeking legal methods in order to ensure the strike does not affect students’ academics.

Students, however, have largely seen through the threats to pursue legal action. 

“The president has been sending out a lot of emails that are just completely false and he’s just lying,” 23-year-old law student Noor-Eldeen M. said.

“He just sent something out last night about how they think they were making good progress. Clearly they’re not because they just voted to go on strike,” Noor-Eldeen added.  

Another law student, Isabelle K., 24, agreed that the messages from Holloway were not reflecting what was happening across campus. 

“It’s so clear too. Like you know when you read an email and you’re like, ‘Oh that’s BS?’ You just know. It’s very sugarcoated. It doesn’t feel genuine at all,” Isabelle said. “He always talks about good faith negotiations, his beloved community and how he wants the best for everyone. It’s just kind of tiring.” 

Kyle Riismandel, the vice president of the Newark chapter of the union, agreed with the law students’ assessment of Holloway’s emails. 

“If he wanted to create a beloved community he would be treating the members of it who do most of the work better. Thirty percent of the teaching is done by [part-time lecturers] and grad workers and they make less than 1% of the budget.

“What they’re calling out is irony or the hypocrisy of calling for a beloved community while not fulfilling that promise.”

Riismandel, who is an associate professor of history and American studies, said that it seemed so many students were on the picket line alongside the union because of the “equity issue among the campuses.”

“Camden and Newark just seem marginal, underfunded, inaccessible, the dorms aren’t as nice,” Riismandel said. “Camden and Newark are black and brown classes. They’re majority-minority. So when resources don’t come here it’s an equity issue.”

Holloway has also said the university has offered to increase salaries for full-time faculty members, teaching assistants and graduate assistants by 12% by 2025. Rutgers offered an additional 3% lump-sum payment to all the faculty unions that would be paid over the first two years of the new contract.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has called for both sides to meet Monday in his office at the Statehouse. But it’s not clear if either side has accepted the offer.

With Post wires