Students' Union President Leslie Church knows students need to be careful about whom they seek references from. But Church also understands the benefits of confidentiality. Church wonders if a student's ability to review reference letters could come back to haunt professors who wrote them. Church wonders if it's possible now for a student to take legal action against a professor or supervisor who they feel didn't provide an adequate or accurate reference. That is the concern that is out there, I think.
Church is right.
The 3,000-member Association of Academic Staff at the U of A responded to the ruling by asking university administrators to consider an appeal of the decision. The decision applies not only to letters written by U of A faculty regarding U of A students, but also to letters of reference supplied for grad school applicants from all over the world. For his part, Unger says the university is, in fact, considering a court appeal of the privacy commissioner's ruling. And regardless of the outcome of that case, the university will still review each case individually to ensure the privacy of faculty and students is protected. In the meantime, Buckingham says faculty members appear to have lost a degree of faith in reference letters.