Kansas University administrators and graduate teaching assistants will resume contract discussions later this month, this time with the help of a federal mediator.

But conflict between the two sides emerged again Thursday, as KU officials told members of the Graduate Teaching Assistants Coalition they couldn’t set up a table and distribute fliers in or near Strong Hall.

KU spokeswoman Lynn Bretz said the ban was in place because the group hadn’t received permission through the campus events committee. Robert Vodicka, GTAC’s chief negotiator, said the committee’s approval hadn’t been required for past activities, including a “grade-in” last spring.

“I can’t figure out why we’re such a threat we can’t distribute information,” Vodicka said after his group was told to leave around 2:15 p.m.

The two sides have been negotiating a three-year contract since September 2000. Though GTAs want better health insurance and tuition and fee waivers for more teaching assistants, the main issue has been salaries.

GTAC’s last request was an $11,000 base salary for the first year of the contract, followed by $12,000 and $13,000 the next two years. KU’s offers were $7,000, $7,700 and $8,400. GTAs currently make an average of $9,946 a year. There is no minimum salary.

GTAC’s requests would require $3 million more in the university’s budget, while KU’s offer would require $117,000.

The current contract for the more than 900 KU GTAs remains in effect until a new one is ratified. Both sides agreed they were at impasse in December.

But Vodicka said Thursday that his group would rather return to the bargaining table than enter mediation.

“It’s not we’re afraid of the fact-finding process,” he said. “We feel comfortable with our positions. We feel it’s better to bargain. We don’t like what appears to be the KU administration hiding behind the process.”

Bretz said GTAC didn’t have to agree to impasse in December.

A federal mediator, Willis Bartlett, will meet with the two groups Feb. 28 on campus. Both Bretz and Vodicka said they were hopeful Bartlett could bring the two sides together.

If mediation is unsuccessful, the process would go to fact-finding, in which an appointed fact-finder determines the appropriate contract for the two sides.