CARBONDALE -- Both sides went back to the bargaining table at three Sunday afternoon. While it's a positive sign, there's no deal yet. SIU administrators and union members hope the help of a federal moderator will get things moving again.

Both sides say they're ready to try negotiating again. Talks with a federal negotiator this spring failed to find a compromise, but under changed circumstances, everyone involved hopes the hard lines have softened.

It took two days of striking, the first in Southern Illinois University's history, to get negotiating teams to schedule a new round of talks. By Sunday, with the help of a federal moderator, negotiation talks resumed for hours.

"I think the longer negotiations go on, the better a sign it is," says Dave Johnson, the Faculty Association's spokesperson. "You can't get a deal if you're not talking. That doesn't mean that the fact that we are talking, we're necessarily going to get a deal, but the opposite does hold. If we stop talking, that means there's no deal tonight."

The tenured and tenure-track faculty members have been working under an expired contract since last summer. The two sides tried working with a federal mediator this spring, but those talks failed. They're hoping the dire circumstances now will help bring about a different result.

"You don't know, it didn't work last time. But a federal mediator is sort of there to facilitate the negotiations. It's designed to help move things forward. So, every hope is there that the federal mediator will be able to grease the skids if you will, and help the two sides come to an agreement," explains SIU spokesperson, Rod Sievers.

The faculty union says its negotiation team met for several hours Sunday, before the negotiation talks. Members say they're not bound by any former proposals and were hoping the administration would bring a more flexible attitude.

"The two sides hope to come together," explains Sievers. "Hopefully, there'll be some wiggle room between each side, and we'll be able to come to an agreement on this and end the strike."

"We want an agreement. We want a fair agreement that meets the interests of both sides," says Johnson. "And we want to make a lot of sudden phone calls to people, giving them the good news that they don't have to picket tomorrow, they get to teach tomorrow."

As of 10pm Sunday, negotiations had gone on for seven hours. If there is no tentative agreement Sunday night, the faculty association plans to be back on the picket lines Monday morning.