Jennifer Charles of the Science Hill Tree Sitters announced Tuesday that members of the group and representatives of the university have been in discussions for the past week, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.

"We've already had a few meetings," Charles said. "It's been ongoing."

The protest began in November 2007 against the university's long-range development plan. Members of the group began living on platforms in a grove of 75-foot-tall redwoods on campus.

In March, the university won an injunction against the protest that allowed the arrest of anyone bringing food or supplies to the tree-sitters. But officials stopped patrols during the spring, only resuming them when the fall term started.

"We have consistently said that we prefer a voluntary and peaceful end to this protest," Jim Burns, a spokesman for the administration, said. "Toward that end, we have reached out and we initiated discussions that we hope will be productive."