A hunger strike started by a group of McMaster university students on Monday is still going on. The students want the university to stop the construction of four natural gas-powered generators on Cootes Drive and divest from the fossil fuel industry.

The McMaster Divestment Project held a solidarity rally on Friday to maintain momentum for their hunger strike. The group says they are not going to eat until the university commits to fully divest from fossil fuels and remove four gas power generators that are under construction on campus.

One student CHCH News spoke to says, “the fact that a higher education university can’t come up with a better solution than fossil fuels, is a little bit embarrassing for the university if I’m honest.”

Friday marks five days since the group of five students has been living without food. “We have packets of electrolytes, I try to have two a day, but essentially that’s just to keep our bodies from not dying, but we don’t have any energy, we’re not gaining any energy from that,” and it’s starting to take its toll, “I don’t feel great, I’m really tired, I feel dizzy all the time.”

The students who are participating in the hunger strike are staying at the McMaster student centre atrium. The students say they’re disappointed with how the university is reacting. They say the Dean of Students met with them yesterday, but there was no resolution.

The university declined to do an interview with CHCH News today but sent a statement saying, “We have had discussions with the students every day of the hunger strike and continue to ask them to stop putting their health at risk and find productive ways of joining in on the university conversations on these critical topics… Every institution chooses its own path in achieving its sustainability goals and we’ve made significant steps forward in making sure McMaster is a leader in reaching net carbon zero as soon as we can.”

However, the students say they won’t stop until their specific demands are met, “we’re only emboldened by all the support and their complete show of ignorance.”