I certainly don't consider the students my enemy, Ms Lohia told NDTV.
Braving a crush of media this morning, Presidency University vice chancellor Dr Anuradha Lohia entered her office and said she will not resign but wants to talk to the students soon.
The section of students demanding her resignation since Friday held silent protests as she arrived at campus around 11:20 and did not bar her way. But they said they will not talk to her. They want her to resign.
"I certainly don't consider the students my enemy. I want to talk to them. I will not resign as I don't think it will serve any purpose. My purpose is to work for the students. I will try and make them understand," Dr Lohia told NDTV after entering her office.
Students who had sat with their mouths taped outside her office moved away, saying, "We don't want to talk to this VC."
After widespread criticism of their mode of protest last Friday, the students appear to have changed their methods.
On Friday, the students who had confined Dr Lohia for 26 hours, defaced the walls of her office and shouted slogans.
Last night, students tried to paint over some of the graffiti in her room.
The protest had flared after a group of students including women were allegedly manhandled by the police after they held demonstrations against a visit by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to their campus August 21.
"We apologise to the civil society and the general society at large (for the protest) however we want to clarify the apology is not the vice chancellor," said a student.
Trisha Chanda, general secretary of the Presidency University students Association said that they wanted Ms Lohia to resign as she has been "curbing intellectual growth" in the university for the last one and a half years.
"Our foremost problem is with the transferring of so many eminent teachers which she did absolutely nothing to prevent," she said.
"The incident on the 21st was just a trigger. It just showed how insensitive the vice chancellor is to our needs and our sentiments," she said.