Temple University has withdrawn tuition assistance for more than a hundred of its graduate students who have been on strike for a week, an unprecedented move in the nascent graduate labor movement.

Teaching and research assistants at the public university in Philadelphia received notices Wednesday that their tuition remission had been removed for the spring semester.

The standoff began last week with several hundred Temple University graduate students

One student shared an email from the school that gave her one month to pay a semester's tuition.

Temple University, a public school in Philadelphia with roughly 40,000 students, confirmed Wednesday that teaching and research assistants who take part in a strike over low pay will have their health coverage suspended and be forced to cover the full cost of tuition

The benefit is worth up to $20,000 a year, according to the university. Students must pay their full tuition balance by March 9 or face a financial hold on their account and a $100 late fee.

Before graduate students took to the picket lines on Jan. 31, Temple had warned that participating in the strike and walking off the job would put their tuition coverage and compensation at risk. The university said

Temple said it could reverse the policy or prorate tuition if the strike comes to an end soon. The university noted that over 80 percent of graduate students remain at work.