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2007 Winners - News (3rd place)
LSAT Thumbprints
By Lyndsie Bourgon
Watch (University of King’s College)
If you’re thinking about taking (or have taken) the Law School Admissions Test you know all about the hours of preparation it takes before writing the exam. But are you prepared for what happens to your thumbprint when you hand it over at the door?
Each year 100,000 people from across Canada and the United States take the LSAT in hopes of gaining admission into law school. The test is given at universities across Canada and the United States.
Test takers are asked to give their thumbprints before taking the exam, which has some students and law schools in Canada up in arms. The thumbprint is given to American authorities and can be accessed by the FBI.
Claire O’Sullivan is a fourth year Contemporary Studies and Spanish student at King’s. O’Sullivan took the LSAT this fall at Dalhousie and is upset about her thumbprint being taken. She says that she was asked to give her thumbprint but was never told what it would be used for.
“None of the privacy issues even occurred to me until later,” says O’Sullivan. “I didn’t think of it, I thought they were really strict on security.”
The Law School Admissions Committee (LSAC) administers the LSAT, and fingerprints test-takers as a security measure. The fingerprint makes sure that test-takers are who they say they are, and that others don’t take the LSAT for someone else.
It’s what happens with the fingerprint afterwards that has been causing controversy across Canadian law school campuses.
After thumbprints are taken at the LSAT exam they are sent to the United States to be processed. From there they are free to be used by American authorities, including the FBI. Many Canadian schools and students this is unfair for Canadian citizens and students who wish to attend law school in Canada.
“Every year Law School Deans from across Canada get together. A few years ago the Dean from University of Victoria objected to the fact that applicants had to provide their thumbprint,” says Michael Deturbide, a professor at Dalhousie Law School and Chair of their Admissions Council. “Their objection related to the fact that this information would be possibly available to US authorities if they choose to access it.”
Many believe that collecting thumbprints stems from the American Patriot Act introduced after the September 11 attacks.
The Patriot Act’s formal name is `Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism’. The Patriot Act was enacted 45 days after September 11 by Congress, and was a response to terrorism. The Patriot Act serves to provide more power and information to American authorities when investigating issues of terrorism.
The Patriot Act has been criticised for the methods used to detain and find terrorists in the United States and to protect future terrorist attacks.
The LSAC has reassured concerned test takers that, “… it has never disclosed thumbprint information in response to a subpoena.”
Thumbprints have been taken during the LSAT for more than 20 years. Deturbide himself gave his thumbprint before he took the LSAT in 1986, and he says that thumb printing is not a direct response to the Patriot Act.
The GMAT and MCAT, used for business and medical school admissions also require that test takers provide their thumbprint before the exam. The Graduate School Requirement Exam (GRE) requires test takers to be photographed before they take the exam.
For O’Sullivan this doesn’t assuage her concern over her thumbprint beings used by the American government. “I think it’s too bad that we have our fingerprint taken by an America company that is subject to law and other legislation like the Patriot Act that we’re not subject to here [in Canada].”
B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis has agreed to investigate complaints lodged by The University of Victoria Law School. The Canadian Council of Law Deans has raised questions about whether the practice violates federal and provincial privacy statues, but no concise answer has been reached as of yet.
Deturbide agrees that taking thumbprints can be considered a security issue for Canadian students. “I think one of the issues relating to what the LSAC does with thumbprints is how long they store the information. It’s not like they surreptitiously obtain the thumbprint, you volunteer it and give consent to do that,” says Deturbide. “The question is then how long do they need to keep it. If they need to make sure you are the person you say you are then they should be routinely cleaning out their database and getting rid of this information when they don’t need it.”
O’Sullivan says she wishes more people were acting on the issue of thumbprinting and personal security when taking tests like the LSAT. “I wish it had never happened,” she says of giving her thumbprint that day.
