Need help with students who've turned my class into a dating service

Question

I'm a professor at a local university. I'm passionate about teaching, and am proud to teach 100-level science and mathematics courses to young and aspiring students.

Some senior engineering students created a sort of dating service/app, "How I Met My Future Wife" (not the actual name, but close enough). It advertises itself as a way for smart young guys to meet "potential marriage material", by helping them social with "young, cultured, educated women". It works by aggregating diversity data my university publishes. This data is intended to help make a case for having more women and minorities in STEM courses so that post-university, we have more diverse representation in the worlds of science, business, and engineering. These senior engineering students used it to create a database of courses that are statistically likely to have a large proportion of young women from certain cultural backgrounds.

The stated goal of the app is to produce a list of courses that would be easy for engineering majors to excel in effortlessly, where the majority of the class is young women that would not necessarily find the class easy. It basically puts engineering majors in a position to ingratiate themselves with a large pool of potential "mates", and even guides users through getting reduced tuition or even taking the course for free (i.e. "auditing" a course; take it for free, but it doesn't affect your GPA, so as to prevent students from gaming the system and boosting their GPAs with easy courses).

A number of 100-level science courses are having record levels of senior-level STEM students auditing these courses, and a number of female students have approached me, noting they are disgusted and uncomfortable with the amount of "leching" taking place (edit: there are no unwanted advances, but it's painfully obvious to some students what's taking place). It's also demoralizing several of them, since we routinely have cases where a young man is leading open labs as if they're a teacher themselves (in order to "wow" their female classmates, offer "private free tutoring sessions", etc). Some of the young students in my class take up these offers, and this further demoralizes other female students seeing this happen (i.e. only attractive women being offered tutoring sessions). This is further compounded by the condescension involved (i.e. one self-admitted user of the app told me "this material that others struggle with is so easy for me, and I'm doing it for laughs and phone numbers.").

How can I stop this?

People auditing the course don't have to take the exams, or attend regularly. They can showboat in a course that's easy for them at zero risk or cost to themselves. I have no means to kick people from the course, despite this obvious behavior, and the people abusing the course can basically come and go as they please.

The university administration refuses to even acknowledge the problem exists (mostly, to my knowledge, because they don't want to admit fault or harm being caused by publishing such granular diversity reports), a few fellow profs either find it comical, or are happy that open labs are so full of volunteer tutors (perk to them, I guess). It seems that all parties are ignoring the young students I teach. I don't know if there are any legal routes, and there's no way I could do a public name-and-shame without jeopardizing my career. I'm at a total loss here.

Update

I scheduled a morning meeting with a senior colleague who has helped me with hard problems in the past (sort of the "go to guy" when things get rough). My husband and I had a long serious talk with him, and it's been made clear the university won't help me with this, as it would mean a "black left eye" for them, and I'd be tossed to the wolves on the left and right. If I want to pursue this further, I have to be prepared to forfeit my career, credibility (i.e. be black-balled in industry), and face lawsuits and SLAPP attacks from the university. With our combined salaries, my husband and I are barely making ends meet. My only real recourse is to counsel my students, while hoping that the app eventually gets more unwanted attention. In short, the problem will have to "solve itself", while numerous female students endure even more adversity in STEM by a program intended to help them.

Answer 1

I take it you sort of volunteered to do the 100-level courses?

But, even so, you are entitled to the support of your own Head of Department. I know that Math Chairs are usually introverts and loath to discuss such things. But whoever wears the badge has to face up to the bad guys: it's the main part of any management job.

Honestly, I feel that this phenomenon is serious enough—and topical enough these past years—that you should apprise your college Dean of it.

Bring a male coworker to these meetings. If you can't find one among the university faculty, bring one in from outside, e.g., a lawyer friend/relative. Otherwise, you could be into a she-said-he-said scenario.

The fact that this is happening more dramatically in STEM isn't any reflection of a lack of anticipation on your part: it is a reflection of a total lack of appreciation of such potentialities within a college environment by more senior faculty who really should have the sensibility to foresee it. So don't entertain any response from your university that posits this as "your problem".

I feel that despite your willingness to undertake these 100-level courses, you will have to threaten to abandon the university's official arrangements for them and offer more selective alternatives elsewhere (plus the real possibility of bad local publicity for the university) before the university takes serious action to sort out the "Kennedy Boys" in those classes.

Answer 2

Contact your school's Title IX coordinator. All schools that receive Federal funding in the US must have one. Since this situation is creating an adverse experience for the women in your class, it is likely in violation of Title IX. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, prohibitted discrimination can include

Engaging in gender-based or sexual harassment such as making unwelcome sexual comments, advances, and/or name-calling on the basis of sex.

They also say,

Federal courts and agencies have found that Title IX prohibits sex-based harassment, including sexual harassment, when such harassment is sufficiently serious as to limit the ability to participate in and benefit from a program or activity

Note that even though your institution might not be officially endorsing this behavior, they still may have a legal responsibility to act if the environment is effecting students' ability to participate. It is natural for administrations to try to ignore problems, but they will likely be much more responsive if they hear a complaint through this channel, since it means their funding could be on the line. If this fails, you could also try making a complaint directly to the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Edit: In response to the clarification in the comments, I'd like to add a few things.

• Even if there's no legal Title IX violation, the Title IX coordinator, and any associated offices at your school, can likely help you to navigate this situation. They're the ones with the expertise. I don't know what the situation is at your school, but the Title IX office at my school encourages people to come to them with concerns, even if there's no blatant abuse.
• Even if each individual student's behavior is entirely benign, that doesn't mean this isn't a Title IX issue. Title IX can apply to situations where the collective behavior of your students creates an adverse environment. Attitudes about this have changed quickly over recent decades, so you may find the Title IX office takes this more seriously than your colleagues.
• Even though you have not heard any complains about harassment, harassment may still be happening, especially outside the classroom. Students tend to be afraid to speak up about this kind of thing (the fact that you've heard complaints is significant). There is already a significant power dynamic between a senior and a younger student, but in this situation, you have younger students relying on older students for academic support. To top it off, the seniors are acting collectively, which means that can rely on each other for support in normalizing bad behavior. This situation is ripe for abuse.

Answer 3

This is probably not something you can fix on your own and it is fairly typical behavior among undergraduate men in some places, hence the lack of support from colleagues. Note that the origin of Facebook was similar to this.

But, your female students aren't without agency. It is they that can/will be negatively affected by boorish and sexist behavior and it is they who can actually have an effect on fixing the problem. Possibly a bigger effect than you could have.

Individuals, however, will have little effect. A group of them can make a difference, perhaps with your guidance. If you meet with a few of them who might be inclined to organize something, then change has a chance to happen. They can collectively provide pressure on administration as well as disfavor on the boors. And for those who will remain in academia, a community of peers is a good thing to have.

In short, rather than trying to protect them, show them that they can protect themselves and how they might go about it. Become a mentor to the students that you have. You won't always be there even if you could do it on your own in this case.

Support organizations are pretty common, actually, especially in places and situations without official recognition of such problems.

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One issue not addressed in the above is the question of people seeing your course as easy, given their own background, and taking it for credit and affecting the curve. One solution is to not use "curve" grading at all. Make it possible for every student to get full marks or zero marks depending on only what they do and not what others do. If someone has to fail so that someone else can get full marks then you have an inherently unfair system. I've written about that other places here. See this question and my own answer on another site for example.

But you can also include elements in your grading scheme that would be disfavored by lazy students. One possibility is to have students give a lecture on some topic after a week's notice and preparation. There are others possible if you put your mind to it. But taking a few easy (for them) quizzes and exams isn't going to make your course more desirable for the students for which it is designed and less desirable for others.

Answer 4

If there are female students who approach you saying that they are uncomfortable, encourage them to put their concerns in writing. If you have a few written complaints, it will be hard for the university administration to just pretend that the problem doesn't exist.

Answer 5

How can you stop this "prank"?

This problem is too big for you to handle (alone) and you are probably not trained to handle it in any case. Trying to solve it yourself might risk shooting yourself in the foot; one suboptimal formulation and you might find yourself the target of an "anti-woke" twitter hate campaign with reactionary state-level politicians using a 3-second secretly recorded video clip taken out of context to campaign against public education (today they call it "woke indoctrination", but anti-intellectualism has been a key part of extremist politics for centuries). I would not risk it alone.

Hopefully and probably there exists a diversity representative within your organisation, either on department or on university level. Contact them and describe to them the situation. Also contact the relevant union representatives. Hopefully they have received training and have a better idea of how to act. If not, at the very least you would need to build a team before taking any action. Alone you are weak, together with others you are much stronger.

Ideally, the aim should be to get your employer to act. If there is then a far-right outcry, you and your employer are on the same side, which makes the situation much safer for you.

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Plan B, if you cannot stop this prank

You can announce what's going on, and state that you do not agree, then go on with your regular teaching. By marking which side you're on, you'll provide emotional support for students who agree that the behaviour is unacceptable, but who are too afraid to speak out by themselves. Thank carefully about a diplomatic but clear formulation.

^{Sadly, sexism and toxic masculinity remain rampant in STEM. I completely recognise the culture behind the actions you describe from my own university days in The Netherlands 20 years ago. I remember one particularly sexist poster for recruiting chemistry students, showing a young man kissing a young woman with roughly the text: *Chemistry is everywhere. The smell or her perfume. The taste of her lips. The colour of her hair.* — and then they're wondering why so few girls/women were signing up for the programme …}

Answer 6

This method of meeting women will probably fizzle out on its own

Firstly, contrary to some other answers here, seeking the company of women and showing off to impress women in this manner is not in-and-of-itself sexual harassment. If your description is accurate, it does not sound like you presently have instances of sexual harassment occurring, though obviously you should keep an eye out in case things escalate badly. (Bear in mind that Title IX also protects the men in the class; they cannot be treated adversely merely because you or others find their romantic/sexual desires uncomfortable or disgusting.) It sounds to me like most of the women in this class are not amenable to the advances being made, but those advances are little more than awkward attempts to impress. Some element of this is a natural part of teaching at a university with lots of young people and hormones, though this is certainly a more extreme case.

My suggestion is just to manage this calmly and sensibly until it fizzles out with time. Keep an eye on class behaviour and intervene where necessary to keep things professional. Schemes like this tend to fizzle out on their own because of the laws of supply and demand in the dating pool. The scheme initially attracts a large number of eager young men, some of whom are socially awkward and try too hard, putting off the women they are attempting to attract. The small number of more suave and desirable young men will probably get dates and then remove themselves and their partners from the dating pool (or they won't be there in the first place because they are already able to meet women successfully without the aid of this scheme). Once that happens, the remaining awkward ones will most likely flounder around without romantic success until they give up and leave.

In regard to this prediction, it is notable that there are hundreds of social areas and activities where women greatly outnumber men (yoga classes, craft fairs, etc.). Any of these could potentially be targeted by young men wanting to put themselves in proximity to many eligible women. The fact that such activities do not general even out their gender participation due to hopeful young men seeking dates shows that this is generally not something that works well enough to constitute an amazing new discovery. Young male engineers are nothing if not practical and empirical, so if they find that their efforts to woo young women in this environment have a low success rate, they will adjust their method accordingly, or just get bored and start working on some new project.

(If I'm wrong, and this scheme does turn out to be some amazing new discovery which solves the romantic needs of young men, then you have yourselves some budding tech billionaires in your midst. Disregarding the cultural and social aspects, I can't help but be impressed with the cleverness of designing a dating App using DEI data; very entrepreneurial stuff.)

Answer 7

In addition some suggestions from the other answers, one thing that you can do and that might at least help is deconstructing the motivation of the invading students.

For example, you could tell the entire course the story of that software and the invasion. This way, all potential targets should know that they are being targetted. This is the groundwork for the deconstruction:

[addressing the invaders:] Have you ever thought this through? At some point, your “future wife” or just potential sexual partner will want to know more about you. She will learn that you are actually studying, say, electrical engineering in the fifth semester. She will then wonder why you are auditing Math for Biologists. And then she will connect the dots. After that, how enthusiastic do you think she will be about marrying you or even having sex with you?

And as this is a data-based crowd, you might spike this with some survey data about how willing women are to sleep with somebody who they know to be a pick-up artists or similar. (Technically, you could even do an anonymous survey amongst your students, but in the US this is almost guaranteed to backfire.)

Answer 8

A little bit of a frame challenge:

I think it will not be possible to remove this behavior completely. Men studying something with a low number of women will always be looking for a way to meet women. It's natural and the problem exists everywhere. However, they should behave like adults and decent human beings.

A solution could be focusing on moving the issue into a productive asset. The following is just a thought and needs tuning.

Have a talk with the course about the issue and behaviors that are unacceptable. Then set up a formal pairing for tutoring with changing tutors and small groups. Use the knowledge the older students have for good. And make sure it is work for the older students (that will deter some) and that they know that they now have official responsibilities, hopefully making them act more mature.

Use two facts to your advantage: the students need to have a good image in the course to achieve their goal and many people will change their behavior if called out.

Look at it this way: the problem isn't their attendance, it's their behavior. Change the latter and only reduce the former.

Answer 9

Just when I thought I had seen all possible questions on this site and stopped following it for a while -- wow, this is quite a new one for me.

One angle that I haven't seen suggested yet is: these senior STEM majors presumably have academic advisors, right? One of the jobs of an academic advisor is to guide and approve the student's course selection. Among other things, a senior STEM major taking a freshman level STEM course is a bad idea academically: it is a poor use of their time, whether they are taking the course for a grade or not. Can you get in contact with the STEM academic advisors? These people may be willing to meet with their students to discuss this. Having to explain to your advisor that you are really taking this course because of someone's addlepated theory that it will help you get dates sounds like it would be a deterrent, at least to some. If you can find a faculty member in the relevant department, they may agree to talk to students in their department whether they are their official advisor or not.

Here is another idea: write up a code of conduct that students (including auditors) in your course must sign. This code of conduct would include a statement that they are taking the course for good academic reasons and that they must make continuous efforts to support a proper academic environment. You can put in your syllabus that students meet with you periodically to discuss their progress in the course, including their conduct.

In summary, if the students who are doing this know that the faculty are fully aware of what they are doing and they are coming under scrutiny for it, then only a small percentage will continue to behave in this way. At least, this has been my experience as a professor at a public research university in the United States for getting on 20 years: some students take more effort to get through to, but the number of students who have continued to behave in a certain way in my course after I have told them suffficiently clearly that I don't want them to and why is very small.

Answer 10

Without the support of your colleagues or administration, it seems like you are limited in your abilities to punish behavior that appears quite sexist and harmful to new students.

Within your power, however, is the ability to remind what type of behavior is acceptable, and that you will be unable to forget this behavior when it comes time for letters of recommendation. If they need your permission to audit the course again, deny it.

I also propose an alternative to punishment - instead of trying to punish the wrongdoers, you could try to put them out of business. Create a school-sponsored tutoring service or organize class-wide study sessions directly. If the sessions are struggling with enrollment, offer to drop by and answer "a few questions" as a means of endorsement. This seems more in line with your motivations as a passionate teacher of 100-level courses. Depending on your school, you may be able to find or apply for funds for such programs, some keywords being: "tutoring", "peer learning", "supplemental instruction".

Alternatively, perhaps you can whitelist tutors that you believe are not cruising for numbers, and offer to connect students to upperclassmen who have good records. Keep in mind you want to avoid conflict of interest - you certainly cannot get anything back from these tutors, consult someone else before this happens, I'm not a lawyer, etc.

Answer 11

Sexual harassment is not to be tolerated. Unwanted attention of the sort your students are reporting is sexual harassment.

1. Point out in class, and/or your online learning module, what constitutes sexual harassment according to your institute. Refer to your institute's policies.

2. Point out what are the official channels of instruction for the course, and who are the official instructors. Point out that any other source of information regarding the course or anyone else who is offering tutoring or "tutoring" services do so outside the institute's pale.

3. Post contact details for people to approach at your institute if they are being harassed on campus, or via official institute channels. Post contact details for people wishing to report harassment occurring outside these official forums.

None of these actions should be in violation of any of your university's policies, or attract any repercussions. If this is not true, your institute has deeper problems.

This problem appears to be confounded by the fact that these individuals are using publicly available student diversity data. You might be right that pointing this out to your institute might be embarrassing for them, if true. It also doesn't sound like you are surrounded by people who are taking this seriously.

Tackling the problem longer-term could mean taking your concerns to your Protor/Ethics Committee/Dean : whoever might be upset about a public expose of this situation. This might force a review of who gets to 'audit' a course, and/or how the diversity data are made available.

Answer 12

There's a lot going on in this question, but as I see it, most of it is not a problem (though a lot of it is rather dubious behavior). I'll take the liberty of cutting down the question to the core, as I see it:

Your class has a group of overqualified students from another department, that is creating an unpleasant atmosphere for some (many?) students. A few members of this group are outright lecherous, making some fellow students uncomfortable. Their overqualification also causes issues for the other students when grading on a curve.

The highly granular diversity data collected (!) and published (!!!) by the university, and the app that uses this data (!!!), are all highly dubious, but at best tangential to the issue. Even without such data, every student will be able to tell you that department X has a large surplus of male students, and department Y has a large surplus of female students.

As for the actual problems:

1. If these students are so overqualified, you should consider not allowing them to take the course in the first place. If you do not have this authority, discuss this with the relevant authority. Perhaps this course should not be an elective for students from other departments to begin with, or perhaps students from other departments should get permission from you and/or their department to attend this course. Otherwise treat them like any other student that doesn't find your course challenging.

2. There are many ways in which students can create an unpleasant atmosphere. The best one can hope for is that this is not intentional, and that it is actionable. In this case, these student do not seem intent on creating an unpleasant atmosphere, it is just a side-effect. It is not clear to me whether the behavior is actionable. Do encourage your students to file complaints on any harassment or abuse, and of course you should report any misbehavior as well. If you return to the administration and Title IX officer with actual written complaints, they will be forced to take you seriously.

   On a lighter note; any behavior that is distracting to other students, or directly hinders others' ability to participate fully, should be adressed and stopped in no uncertain terms immediately. In the 100-level courses I've taught I would give exactly one warning to someone 'clowning' around, and thereby warn the entire class. The next one is expelled immediately. I never liked teaching these courses.

3. Stop grading on a curve; it makes no sense. (Follow the link in the comments if you wish to discuss this).

Another approach you could pursue in parallel, is to redirect these students' motivations for attending in the first place. They are there to meet women, which is a very natural motivation, and a very strong one in young adults. In the US it is generally considered the responsibility of males to initiate contact, this is simply their very poor shot at taking initiative. It should not be difficult to facilitate better opportunities than 'attending courses you have no interest in for no credit'.

Consider contacting the student unions of the departments involved, and help them organize some shared social events for students from these two departments. This is of course not your responsibiliy, and I don't suggest that you become a party planner on the side, but planting the idea and maybe diverting some resources could go a long way. Think of facilitating communication between the departments/student unions, facilitating a location or redirecting a bit of funding.

Answer 13

I've never had quite that problem but it feels like parts of other problems. A few regular lecturer tricks come to mind:

• Don't let it be personal. Sure, App-induced shenanigans is bad for the class and super-gross(*). Professionalism and human decency says to do something, but you made an effort and in the end it's their school. With me it's cheating, but I can't catch them all, it's not like they killed someone, and worrying about it is just taking time away from other classwork. For me, whatever I do, it's not personal (even if it is). I'm just trying to protect the school from student complaints and angry employers.

• Some problems are a "next semester" issue. It's when people have more time to consider things; maybe new policies are involved (which can only be changed for next semester); maybe the problem solves itself by semester's end, but at least more data is in.

• Make sure everyone knows these helpful fellows are not TA's. That'll help prevent rumors starting (about TA's dating students) or that you don't have control over the TA's, or students' misunderstandings when they think these fellows are safer than they are because they're somehow supervised or screened. Because a group of upper-classpeople who clearly don't need the course must be something official, right? It's not as if the school would force the instructor to let lonely randos follow pretty girls into the classroom.

• This might be a fun way to learn how the University structure works. I've worked at two and never did figure out the second one. I'm still not sure what a Provost is. Some students are closer to their advisors, so it might help to be sure they know this situation. That might also clue you in about whether other classes are having this problem. Either way, I've met some interesting Uni staff starting with "I have a weird classroom problem you might have some insight on".

• Good students really want to know that something is being done about classroom issues. So tell those students who complained what you did. They'll fell better that you tried to look out for them. It's also a nice way to explain how universities work to them. They've probably never heard of auditing(**) a class. And sometimes enough angry students can solve problems staff can't.

• Not sure if this is an issue. Maybe these people are quietly sitting in the back and flashing the regular students sexy pouts as they walk in and out, calling them Mi'lady perhaps. But if that's not the case, treat them like any other student who's a little too good for the class, always has the answer, and so on -- C students need to be comfortable asking questions, and interfering with that is disrupting the class.

(*) So these are Juniors and Seniors cruising for Fresh-people? Eeww.

(**) Allowing someone to audit my class, or just sit-in, was completely my decision (I assume since only I knew if there was room, it would be disruptive, etc... , and since there were no fees involved). It's so funny what things are different.

Answer 14

First of all - I'm sorry to hear this and good for you for wanting to stick up for your students.

As mentioned by others, this is too big for you to handle. Ideally you would be able to speak up in class at the start of a lecture, clearly point out what despicable behaviour is happening under everyone's noses and pointing out that this is non-professional behaviour that also lacks moral integrity. Unfortunately, this approach may backfire as pointed out by others.

So indeed, sketch your options. Identify people and/or committees/offices you could get involved - in either case as your support system and better yet as helping you to take action. Diversity officers, Title IX, your own boss or boss' boss, perhaps even student bodies? Write an opinion piece in the university paper/news outlet? Encourage the young students who feel harassed to take action and be their support system as they press charges?

Sadly, whichever course of action you take, the repercussions are impossible to predict - but from your question I sense that doing nothing is not an option.

One thing I didn't see explicitly mentioned by others is to try and find a male ally. Do you have a male colleague (ideally more senior and/or popular with the perpetrating crowd) who might be able to shut this down and talk sense into the juvenile brains behind this whole thing who might simply not realise how despicable their actions are?

Answer 15

Here are few suggestions. These will not resolve the problem completely (I think, nothing can), but might help to alleviate it.

1. Auditors. These might be registered or unregistered.

(i) Unregistered. The unregistered ones are easier to deal with (although, time-consuming). On the first day of classes, or whenever you are ready for this, bring a printout of the list of all registered (for this class) students. A day or two before the lecture send a general announcement to the class, asking everybody to bring their student Id's to the class. Then, on the day of the lecture you ask all present students one-by-one to identify their name, check it against the roster and if needed, ask for their Id's to confirm. This way you will find who (if anybody) is unregistered and ask them to leave and not to attend the class unless they register. If they refuse, call the campus police. If some of them leave but come back to the next lecture (you will probably recognize such students), ask them to leave again.

(ii) Registered. Find out the exact campus policy regarding auditors: You can probably find it online; if it is not available, ask registrar's office or whatever office deals with registration for classes. The auditor policies vary widely. Here is just a small sample:

UCLA: No fee is required for auditing, but instructor's consent is required.

UGA: Full registration fee, instructor's consent is not required.

Harvard: $500 registration fee for a course, but instructor's consent is required.

Princeton: $200 registration fee for a course, instructor's consent is not required.

After finding out the precise policy you may find out that instructor's consent is required, just your department for some reason is not following the policy and, maybe a secretary, is dealing with the issue. In the case when instructor's consent is required, make sure that the official policy is followed and then introduce a strict "no-auditing" system for your class. Even if it turns out (as in Princeton) that the fee is small but instructor's consent is not required, go and discuss the issue with an appropriate campus entity (like registrar's office) if you can petition them, as an exception to allow you to control who is auditing the class. As an explanation, my suggestion is to stick to educational issues and argue that too many upperclassmen are auditing the class, which disrupts the education of the freshmen students (or something along these lines) - try to avoid discussing diversity-related issues since you already know how it will be perceived. Since the money involved is relatively small, maybe your petition will be granted.

2. Registered students, taking the class for a credit. These are the most difficult ones to handle. On the first day of classes (or whenever you are ready), run a quiz asking students their name, seniority status, major, why are they taking the class and what do they hope to get from it. I think, there is a good chance that upperclassmen will identify themselves honestly. (You can also double check the information through official channels. I know, I can do this with my classes.) Now, you have several options.

(a) After collecting this information, you can send individual emails to the upperclassmen students, asking them to meet you, as a group, in a (reserved in advance) classroom. Then explain to them, possibly appealing to their answers to the quiz, that it seems that they are overqualified for this class. And since you care deeply about their education, you will be giving them special assignments to work on during lectures and labs so that they do not waste their precious time on the material that they already know, and tell them that they are so well-prepared that the assignments should be quite easy. Each assignment is worth zero points, but you will still collect these at the end of the class. Make the assignments sufficiently hard so that the students will spend most of their time in class working on these assignments instead of staring at the girls or showing off.

If students complain that this is unfair, you will also give individually tailored assignments (still worth 0 points) to the rest of the students as well, explaining that the assignments are designed to reflect the level of preparedness of students for the class.

Now, what is intensive the upperclassmen have to hand in their assignments if they are worth 0 points? This is because they are in the class to show off! Failing to hand-in something reasonable will undermine their credibility.

(b) You identify the enrolled upperclassmen visually (your university probably has a database of student pictures (mine does), if not, take pictures of their student Ids on the first day of classes. Also, have a list of upperclassmen ready during lectures/labs. I know that in the US "cold calling" students during the class is usually not done, but you are in a special situation. So, during each lecture/lab you would cold-call some of the upperclassmen and ask them hard questions (still based on the class material). In order to preserve fairness, you also call some of the freshmen, asking easier questions. Being unable to answer, would hurt students egos and will reduce their incentive to take your classes. And, also, the word would get out that you are a harsh instructor, but the effect will be similar.

The drawback of (a) and (b) is that these are likely to reduce your teaching evaluation averages. But think if it's worth it.

Answer 16

I can see that "Officially" the Administration is deciding that this App and its fallout are NOT an issue that they are willing to take on -- both because it's potentially embarrassing and as the OP stated, the person in charge of diversity sees this as a "good thing".

However, there is no reason the OP can't do anything "unofficially"...I mean, anonymously report anything "bad" (true, the OP said that it wasn't quite at the overt level of sexual harassment yet), tweak the school paper to what's going on, see about the student government -- I'm sure there are representatives for the various classes, etc. And, use those entities to affect change -- whether you contact them officially or anonymously.

Personally, since you know who is auditing your class, I liked the suggestion of "putting them to work" and making them do a mini-presentation of a topic or person for the class -- if they don't, well, don't let them back in...if they do, well it might be a net plus for the class as a whole.

I would also see about discouraging the whole, "free private tutoring sessions", especially, if it's ONLY for the pretty girls...maybe try to divide students into groups so it's evenly divided...or remind everybody that those sessions aren't official.

I would to discourage random participation by auditors (and others), create a strict set of guidelines for attendance and behaviors...attendance, I mean you might not be getting a grade, but, you can't just show up or not as you feel like it -- and this is a 'real' classroom...behaviors, I mean remind people that it is a classroom and class and certain things WILL not be tolerated (e.g. egregious behavior against the school's code of conduct)...and if there are complaints by fellow students, they would be taken seriously.

I also think having students write up their complaints about what's going on is a good thing...e.g. I didn't say anything the students said it... Plus, maybe, encourage them to bring up the issues to people in charge.

Answer 17

These are more mitigation strategies than actual solutions, but given the difficulties with actual solutions...

1. Remove the payout for the unwanted behavior. By which I mean provide plenty of help that doesn't come with ulterior motives so that students don't feel pressure to accept help from someone who does have ulterior motives. If these students are spending a lot of time/effort coming in and "helping" in an attempt to find a romantic relationship and it doesn't actually work they will sooner or later give up and go away.

2. Provide some acceptable alternative for what they're trying to do. Like a social club. Students who want to form social relationships can go to the social club meetings.

Maybe read up on operant conditioning/animal training. Many animal trainers work with animals that they simply can't physically compel (you can't compel an animal who outweighs you many times over or an animal who can easily escape) but they still have strategies to get rid of unwanted behaviors--things like "least reinforcing scenario" and "differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior".