By JULIA PRESTON

         MEXICO CITY, Feb. 14 -- Scuffles broke out at the national
         university today as tens of thousands of students returned for the
          first official day of classes since a strike started last April 20.

          Students flocked peacefully to their classrooms this morning, on the first
          day when almost all schools and departments were open. At midmorning
          about 2,000 supporters of the strike marched into the campus, saying
          they hoped to persuade other students to go home.

          At the law school, a shouting match between factions turned into
          rock-throwing. When pro-strike students tried to enter the building, other
          students slammed the gates to keep them out.

          After the strike dragged on for more than nine months, federal police
          took over the campus on Feb. 6 and arrested 754 strikers. The police
          withdrew after three days.

          The strike movement declared that the strike is not over and has
          continued to meet at other universities in Mexico City. The strikers said
          their goal today was to persuade students to renew the strike.

          But the only department where strikers managed to occupy the
          auditorium was Sciences, which had been a headquarters of the
          movement. The department chairman postponed the start of classes,
          saying he hoped to avert a confrontation.

          Elsewhere life on the vast campus returned to normal remarkably quickly,
          with students playing soccer on the spacious lawns and poring over
          textbooks in the sunshine. Of 275,000 students enrolled in the National
          Autonomous University of Mexico when the strike began, 230,000 at
          most were expected to return to classes, administration officials said.
          Others have dropped out or moved to other universities.

          However, protests from intellectuals and political leaders against the
          police intervention have multiplied. On Saturday a Mexico City judge
          denied bail to 52 strikers and upheld charges against two strike leaders,
          Alejandro Echavarría and Alberto Pacheco, for felony theft. At least 50
          other strikers remain in jail awaiting formal charges.

          Alfredo Velarde, an economics professor who was a chief strategist of
          the strike movement, wrote a letter to the newspaper La Jornada to say
          he was not detained, as the paper had reported, but was in hiding in
          Mexico City.

                     Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company