Thousands of faculty at New Jersey’s Rutgers University went on an indefinite strike Monday, 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.

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.”

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 held 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 other requests.

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 valiant efforts to meet its goals, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said Sunday that he believed the two sides are close to an agreement and will continue to negotiate.

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

He has also said that 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. 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