The Thirty Meter Telescope occupation is finally coming to an end.

No, not that one. Students who have been holding a sit-in at the administration building at the University of Hawaii at Manoa since August say they plan to pack up their stuff and leave Bachman Hall on Friday.

“We’re using this winter break as a time to pause, as a time to reassess,” said Jonathan Fisk, a third-year doctoral student in natural resources and environmental management and one of the leaders of Kia‘i ke Kahaukani.

The Bachman Hall sit-in was launched in August, a month or so after protesters on Hawaii island took up positions at Mauna Kea Access Road to block construction of the $1.4 billion telescope project.

About 30 UH students, staff and faculty took up residence in the administration building’s lobby on the first day of classes, vowing to remain there until the UH Board of Regents discontinued support for the TMT.

But Fisk said Monday that the group has done all it can while occupying the space at Bachman Hall.

He said the effort has accomplished a great deal as it raised awareness about Mauna Kea both on campus and throughout the community.

Among other things, the group met with UH President David Lassner three times, with UH Board of Regents leadership once, and joined in some 300 protocol ceremonies in honor of the protesters on the mountain.

“We know that being here 24/7 isn’t where our energy is best spent now,” Fisk said, adding that many of the protesters will be spending the winter break at Mauna Kea.

“In the spirit of Makahiki, we will be using winter break to ho‘olono — to listen to our kupuna, to our ‘aina, to our ‘ohana, to reflect on all that we have learned, to reground ourselves in our studies, and to further explore new strategies moving forward,” the group said in a letter posted on social media Sunday.

“After a semester of consistent student-led protest, UH will never be able to claim that their students were unmoved, unwilling to communicate, nonsolution oriented, or that the construction of the TMT was only harmful to the far and few.”

Fisk said the effort also helped prompt UH-Manoa Provost Michael Bruno to announce the formation of a commission to address racism and bias on the Manoa campus.

“This is a the first major action that any administrator at UH has taken in regards to addressing the TMT conflict and how it has impacted Hawaii’s communities,” the letter said.

Under a best-case scenario, the commission could end up demanding that the Board of Regents cancel the TMT sublease, the letter added.

The university oversees management of the astronomy reserve at the Mauna Kea summit, and UH Hilo holds the lease that will allow the cutting-edge telescope to be built.

There is a long history of student sit-ins at Bachman Hall, and university officials for the most part kept the bathrooms and the doors to the lobby open.

Fisk said the break from Bachman has the full support of the protest leadership at Mauna Kea.

“This isn’t a full stop. It’s the end of this chapter, in the sense that there are many more chapters to come,” he said. “As one of my friends said last night: This is not a period but rather a semi-colon.”

On Friday at 5 p.m., the group will hold its final protocol ceremony on the lawn in front of Bachman Hall.