SACKVILLE, N.B. -- The faculty association and administration at Mount Allison University will meet with a mediator Saturday in an effort to end a three-week strike, New Brunswick's education minister said Friday as the two sides sparred over whether classes will resume.

Jody Carr said he is hopeful the union and the university can reach an agreement so that the school's 2,400 students can return to class.

"Our options are being exhausted but we haven't given up hope on the two sides to reach an agreement themselves," Carr said at the legislature in Fredericton.

The two sides sent out conflicting statements Friday on when students will return to class at the school in Sackville. The faculty association said the administration was wrong when it announced students will go back to class Monday.

The university says the faculty association accepted voluntary binding arbitration, which the school proposed Feb. 7.

But the faculty association, which represents 154 full-time and 56 part-time faculty and librarians, said on its website that it has proposed a different kind of binding arbitration and its terms have not yet been worked out with the administration.

"We have not yet concluded any agreement with the employer concerning the scope of binding arbitration and the terms under which the strike can be concluded," the association said in an open letter to students and parents.

"Without these agreements, there can be no end to the strike."

The association said the university proposed a form of binding arbitration in which both sides present a proposal and the arbitrator chooses one.

The association said it countered with a type of arbitration that works through each unresolved issue separately, adding that it was "amazed" the university wouldn't contact the faculty first to confirm their position.

"We are dismayed and disheartened by the confusion that the administration's actions have created among students and parents," it said. "The university community is not well served by such tactics."

Karen Grant, vice-president academic and research at Mount Allison, said the university issued its news release after reading a statement on the association's website earlier Thursday that proposed binding arbitration and a return to class Monday.

"As far as we're concerned, classes are resuming on Monday," Grant told News 91.9 in Moncton, N.B. "We do realize that, of course, as part of this process there will need to be discussions on a return to work protocol and we will over the weekend be focused on that."

Carr said back-to-work legislation could be introduced, but only as a last resort.