Employment Services Terms and Conditions

Revision Date: July 12, 2018

The Employment Center, sponsored by the American Academy of Religion, Inc. ("AAR") and the Society of Biblical Literature ("SBL" and, together with AAR, the "Organizations"), provides the opportunity for employers and job candidates to register for interviews at the Annual Meetings and to use the Employment Center's other services, including interview facilities, job listings, candidate credentials, and messaging services.

These Employment Services Terms and Conditions ("ES Terms") govern the relationship between the Organizations, on the one hand, and the users of the Employment Services ("you," being either an "employer" or a "candidate") on the other hand with respect to the Employment Center, Employment Listings, and other offerings.  In addition to these ES Terms, AAR members’ use of those services are subject to its policies and any general terms and conditions of use of its website at http://www.aarweb.org, and SBL members’ use is subject to SBL terms and policies found within its website at http://www.sbl-site.org. All these terms and policies are incorporated herein by reference. You are also subject to the additional terms and conditions below.

REGISTRATION/ACCOUNTS. Registration is open to all employers and to all members of either Organization. Upon registering for the Annual Meeting through either Organization's website, Organization members must register with the Employment Center to use and access the Employment Center services. In addition, upon creating an online account through this website, employers must register with the Employment Center to use and access Employment Center services. You have no ownership rights in your account. If you cancel your account or if your account is terminated, all your account information may be deleted from the Organizations' databases, and the Organizations shall have no liability to you. Third parties may retain saved copies of your information, and the Organizations are not responsible for any such usage by third parties.

CANDIDATE SUBMISSIONS. Any information that a candidate submits to the Organizations or uploads to the Site or to a potential employer (all of which is a candidate's "Content") must be accurate, and the candidate shall be solely responsible for the form and content of such information, including all information in the candidate's curriculum vitae ("CV").

1. The candidate has the option to send his or her CV to the employer contact identified in the job posting or upload it to the Site for the employer to access. The information in a candidate's CV is solely the responsibility of the job applicant. If either Organization receives a candidate's CV for any reason, the Organization is under no obligation to forward it to prospective employers or to retain the candidate's information for any reason.

2. When you, as a potential employer, receive a CV from a job applicant through the Employment Center, you will use and maintain that information in accordance with all applicable privacy and data protection laws, and you will not disclose any of the related information to any third party unless the candidate authorizes you to do so. You will also not use the employment listings or the information submitted to you by job candidates for any purpose other than as an employer seeking employees. Unless the candidate provides his or her consent, you will not use their data for future unsolicited contact or sell their information to third parties.

3. The Organizations are not responsible for the information contained in any candidate's Content, and the Organizations are not making any representations, warranties, or endorsements of any job applicant by allowing them to submit or post a CV. Neither Organization is responsible for the potential employer's use of the candidate's information.

4. The Organizations make no decisions about a candidate's job eligibility and SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS OR INDECISIONS UNLESS CAUSED SOLELY BY SUCH ORGANIZATIONS’ GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR INTENTIONAL WRONGDOING.

5. If the Organizations receive your CV for any reason, we are under no obligation to forward it to prospective employers or to retain your information for any reason.

LISTING SERVICE. Through the Site, AAR and SBL allow third parties to post job listings. The postings are provided for reference only and do not imply any endorsement of or any association with such third parties. The Organizations do not control such third parties and are not responsible for the content of their postings. Any representations made regarding such third parties or the job positions are governed by the policies and representations made by said third parties. The Organizations may accept, reject, or remove postings, and the Organizations shall not be liable for any such removal.

Your job postings are your Content. You may post job listings for credentialed scholars in religion. If you post a job on the Site, you are solely responsible for your posting, which must comply with these terms and conditions. The Organizations may accept, reject, or remove any posting if they determine, in their sole discretion, that the posting does not comply with the terms and conditions. Regardless, neither Organization shall be responsible to any third party for any representations you make about yourself or the job position.

A job posting may not contain: (a) information that violates AAR's or SBL's nondiscrimination policy, as determined by the Organizations; (b) misleading, unreadable, or hidden keywords, repeated keywords, or keywords that are irrelevant to the job opportunity being presented, as determined in the Organizations’ reasonable discretion; (c) the names, logos, or trademarks of unaffiliated companies other than yours; (d) the names of colleges, cities, states, towns, or countries that are unrelated to the posting; (e) more than one job or job description, more than one location, or more than one job category; (f) inaccurate, false, or misleading information; or (g) material or links to material that exploit people in a sexual, violent, or other manner or solicits personal information from anyone under 18.

You may not use your job posting to: (a) post jobs in a manner that does not comply with applicable laws, including but not limited to laws relating to labor and employment, equal employment opportunity and employment eligibility requirements, data privacy, data access and use, and intellectual property; (b) post jobs that require citizenship of any particular country or lawful permanent residence in a country as a condition of employment, unless otherwise required in order to comply with applicable law; (c) post jobs that include any screening requirement or criterion in connection with a job posting that is not an actual and legal requirement of the posted job; (d) sell, promote, or advertise products or services; (e) post any franchise, pyramid scheme, "club membership," distributorship, multi-level marketing opportunity, or sales representative agency arrangement; (f) post any business opportunity that requires an upfront or periodic payment or requires recruitment of other members, sub-distributors or sub-agents; (g) promote any opportunity that does not represent bona fide employment; (h) endorse a particular political party, political agenda, or political position or issue; (i) post jobs located in countries subject to economic sanctions of the United States government; or (j) except where allowed by applicable law, post jobs that limit the eligibility criteria based upon, or that require the applicant to provide information relating to his or her, racial or ethnic origin, political beliefs, philosophical or religious beliefs, membership of a trade union, physical or mental health, sexual life, or age.

The Organizations reserve the right to remove any job posting or Content from the Site that they determine at their discretion either does not comply with these Terms or is not in the best interest of the Organizations.

Affirmative Action Statement It is expected that all employers will adhere in good faith to applicable federal, state, and local regulations concerning affirmative action, equal employment opportunity, and nondiscrimination. Furthermore, employers are encouraged to take affirmative action initiatives. Institutions, if any, to which these regulations do not apply, or institutions, if any, at which religion has been determined to be a bona fide occupational qualification should state this in their job announcements. In addition, job announcements should state the criteria by which candidates will be evaluated (major field, supplementary fields, degree(s), experience, publications, etc.). It is further expected that candidates will be evaluated for hiring, promotion, and tenure on the basis of appropriate professional credentials, qualifications, and affirmative action considerations.

GUIDELINES FOR EMPLOYMENT CENTER. By using the services of the Employment Center, the potential employers/interviewers and job candidates/interviewees shall abide by the following guidelines:

1. Interviewers will notify interviewees that they must be Annual Meetings registrants;

2. Interviews conducted at the Annual Meetings require an ad listed on this website;

3. All interviews conducted at the Annual Meetings will be conducted in space arranged for and scheduled by Employment Center staff;

4. AAR and SBL encourage search committees to consult with their deans and institutional counsels in order to comply with best practices when conducting interviews. Interviews are not under any circumstances to be conducted in sleeping rooms or in suites with bedrooms visible, even with the approval of the interviewer, interviewee, or otherwise. Reports of violations of this policy will be forwarded to an institution’s deans and administration;

5. Interviewers should notify the interviewee in a timely fashion of the exact location and time of their interview;

6. Interviewers should communicate in writing to interviewees that, if they request to be interviewed in a different place, it will be arranged without prejudice to their candidacies. If any candidate requests within a reasonable time that an interview be moved to a different venue, the interviewers should make a good faith effort to comply. The interviewers will notify the Employment Center staff that such a change was requested along with the disposition of the request;

7. Interviewees and interviewers should enlist the mediation services of the Employment Center staff if there are differing views regarding compliance with these guidelines; and

8. Grievances of any kind regarding interviews conducted at the Annual Meetings may be filed with Employment Center staff for resolution.

WARRANTY DISCLAIMERS. THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER, INCLUDING ANY CONTENT OR INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN IT OR ANY RELATED SERVICE, IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND WITH NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE ORGANIZATIONS MAKE NO WARRANTY, IMPLIED OR EXPRESSED, THAT ANY PART OF YOUR USE OF THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR‑FREE, VIRUS‑FREE, TIMELY, SECURE, ACCURATE, RELIABLE, OR OF ANY QUALITY, OR THAT ANY CONTENT IS SAFE IN ANY MANNER FOR DOWNLOAD.  YOU ASSUME TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK FOR YOUR USE OF THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER AND RELATED SERVICES.

The Organizations: (a) do not warrant that any candidate will receive any employment or job offers through the Employment Center; (b) shall not be responsible for any employment offers, employment screenings, employment decisions, and actual employment presented by third parties; (c) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, validity, or timeliness of information listed by any third party; (d) shall not be responsible for any materials posted by third parties, including, but not limited to, job openings and employment listings; and (e) are neither a candidate's employer nor  candidate's agent in any regard. Candidates shall use their own judgment, caution, and common sense in evaluating any prospective employers and any information provided by any third party.

Some jurisdictions may not allow disclaimers of implied warranties; therefore, some or all of the above disclaimers may not apply to you.

LIABILITY LIMITATIONS. THE ORGANIZATIONS ARE NOT AND WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE, OR OTHER DAMAGES, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSS (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES) ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING IN ANY WAY TO (a) THE USE OF OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER OR ANY RELATED SERVICE, (b) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR DATA TRANSMISSIONS, (c) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT BY YOU OR BY ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER OR ANY RELATED SERVICE, OR (d) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER.  YOUR SOLE REMEDY FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER, ANY RELATED SERVICE, OR ANY CONTENT IS TO STOP USING THE EMPLOYMENT CENTER.

IF YOU ARE A CALIFORNIA RESIDENT, YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE SECTION 1542, WHICH SAYS "A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR."