Associate Carleton biology professor Root Gorelick is publicly challenging Carleton’s exam policies for breaching student privacy by mandating students to complete exam sign-in sheets that are seen by other students as the sheet is passed around.
The example sign-in sheet Gorelick posted to his blog asks for name, signature, and student number, and has 30 spaces for students to sign, meaning the last student filling out the sheet could see up to 30 others’ information.
Gorelick said the practice violates the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), which enforces the confidentiality of students’ personal information.
He said he approached the appropriate faculty and administration members on a regular basis for five years until he decided to make the concern public by posting about it on his blog.
Carleton’s public affairs manager Beth Gorham said Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) determined that Carleton’s exam process does not breach FIPPA.
“The information is collected for the sole purpose of administering exams and is not disclosed to any other party,” Gorham said in an email.
She said exam proctors can use a sheet of paper to cover the names and information of students as they move down the page.
“The university encourages professors to adopt this process should they be concerned about the privacy of student names and numbers,” she said.
Carleton has also provided instructors with the option of individual signing sheets for each student.
“The problem is that only instructors (not students) are given this option of individual signing sheets,” Gorelick said in his blog.
Despite administration’s position that the practice is not a privacy breach, Gorelick said they have given him “empty promises” about changing the system to include identification card readers or card scanning systems that would no longer allow students to see each other’s names and identification numbers.
Carleton’s provost and vice-president (academic) Peter Ricketts said the practice of having students sign in physically is important, and doesn’t violate privacy.
“It is important that students physically sign in for exams to ensure that they are properly recorded [as] having attended the exam in person,” he said in an email.
