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

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Where does your university publish the diversity data? Is it available to the general public or only to university staff or students? Is it made available under a license that restricts its use?

I'm sorry that you're facing this problem: it's unfortunate and impacts students' bona fide desire to learn. I wonder if you could add a registration requirement like offering this class as a cross-listed 100 level and 200 level class. Taking the class for credit and auditing the 100 level course would be limited to those who have not completed more than one other 100 level science class, without instructor approval. Auditing of 200 level course not allowed, and registration for 200 level course will require additional work including two 20 page papers, e.g.

Just to clarify the question and as a short summary: so the institution posted diversity data, and students processed it to fulfill their “marital desires” by enrolling as auditors to classes with a higher proportion of potential partners fitting their criteria? Is it also safe to assume this takes place in the US (GPA,SLAPP)?

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.

This might be hard, as no unwanted advances are taking place. We simply have students excelling at the course, and drawing-in a crowd. I should've been more clear with my "leching" comment. Still, it seems harassing in nature.

@Ana I think this is either a Title IX problem, or it is not a problem at all. (To me, it sounds like the former.)

@Arno I agree. The problem here is that the behavior stops just short of Title IX issues (my confidant/mentor spelled this out to me). There's no un-wanted flirting (someone edited my post and removed this point). But, it's still demoralizing to have young men showboating with ease in a course that's predominantly women, offering extensive help to specific class mates. Even worse, some women in the class seem oblivious to this or don't care, while the majority of them are insulted and hurt by this. It feels like some perverse recreation of Mona Lisa Smile.

Whether the issue is a Title IX issue seems like something the Title IX office is better suited to determine than your colleague. Unless you fear repercussions, why not report it and let them decide?

If this situation somehow blows up, and the OP hasn't contacted the Title IX office, plenty of people will ask why not.

@Ana I agree with overfull hbox: it's not your job to decide (and be thankful for that) but it is your job to report. Failure to report is arguably as big a problem as the harrassment itself. Not reporting is a corollary for enablement. I have found myself in a couple similar situations throughout life. You will better once you've reported it.

"Even worse, some women in the class seem oblivious to this" Is there a reason not to tell your students what's going on? I find that generally an effective way of dealing with unethical behavior is not being afraid to openly identify and talk about that behavior (without pointing to specific students).

-1: "Even if each individual student's behavior is entirely benign, that doesn't mean this isn't a Title IX issue" benign is, by definition, irrefutably not an issue.

@Ana "no unwanted advances are taking place. We simply have students excelling at the course, and drawing-in a crowd" to summarize: you have better attendance, students are getting good grades, everyone is happy, except for a few students who aren't getting attention? aren't there always students who don't get attention?

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.

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.

Good answer (+1) but the last suggestion (give a lecture presentation on short notice) sounds like it would be preferred by precisely the students she is seeking to discourage.

+1 for many things, particularly for the curve part. I don't understand why many lecturers believe that if they curve up, they should also be curving down!

@darijgrinberg a single student getting 100% can ruin certain "curving" methods, even if you are only curving up (for example, a scheme where you add 100 minus the highest grade to every student's grade)

@Esther: These aren't great curving methods then :) I thought the normal thing to do is to draw gradelines where there are not many scores accumulating.

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.

I thought the same. I would add, that if the issue is described and published in an online platform/blog (something which does not require registration and login, open to the world), the thing may become visible enough that the organisers will decide to stop on their own to avoid troubles.

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.

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 …

Sadly, the person who more-or-less fills that role is one-track minded: they see this as a good thing, because my classes are now more diversified.

While I agree that the risk of being targetted by right-wing extremists is something @Ana has to weigh against the benefits herself, it’s also worth considering that silencing such efforts is one of the goals of the extremists and by giving in to that threat you are letting them win to some extent.

@Wrzlprmft I don't recommend giving in; I recommend seeking allies, preferably allies trained to deal with such issues.

@gerrit: Sure, I am talking about the case that getting allies doesn’t work out or takes too long (which sadly appears to be the case).

@Wrzlprmft If the attitude that the OP wants to push back against pervades not only the students but the entire work culture, it becomes very difficult to act, I'm afraid.

@Ana I've edited the answer and added a comment on what one might do if no allies can be found.

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.)

I disagree. Even if no individual is engaging in harassing behaviour, the sum total effect on the women in question of a large amount of non-harassing behaviour can amount to harassment. Or at least have the same impact as harassment would. Another way in which this might fizzle out is that the gender imbalance "corrects" itself because women stop taking the course or stop attending.

Non-harassing behaviour does not amount to harassment merely because the woman in question has been exposed to a large volume of previous non-harassing (but annoying) behaviour.  That is no more the case than the idea that a-thousand handshakes adds up to assault and battery.  As to cumulative impact, it is possible in principle for circumstances to give rise to a "hostile learning environment" but the situation described here would not meet that test.

What word we use to describe a situation is less important than the effect on thr individual in question. If the effect is the same as if they were being harassed, then that's all that matters, just as someone who had shaken a thousand hands would probably have a pretty sore hand, and someone demanding to be the 1001st is not being very considerate.

The effect is not all that matters --- the actions and culpability of the actor also matters, all the more so in cases where people are suggesting sanctions, complaints, Title IX reports, etc.

Just as what matters is the effect in the women,  so stopping it from happening is more important than who is culpable or deserving of punishment. I dont necessarily believe that the individuals  should be punished, but that doesn't mean just leaving it to fizzle out of the correct course of action. I feel sightly different about those who created the service, especially if they are unrepentant after the effect in their younger classmates is pointed out.

The descibed behaviour consists essentially of enrolling in a course where the person has little interest, showing off to impress women, and being somewhat annoying.  None of those are things that male students are not allowed to do.  Deciding you must use lecturer authority to stop this (and using descriptors like "unpetentant") is adverse treatment of students based on discomfort with their sexual desires and mild manifestations of those desires.  The fact that you use words like "unrepentant" means that you have judged them guilty of an infraction.

I don't think we are adding much the question or the answer. Lets continue this in chat

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.)

This is a great idea in principle (+1), but I'd recommend being more careful with the language and the exact approach.  The App could be raised in a light-hearted manner that notes it as an interesting phenomenon bearing on the class composition, but does not attack anyone (or think of them as "invaders").  A lecturer speculating on whether or not women might want to have sex with male students in the class is itself quite rude and could come off badly.

This seems rather out of touch with reality. What will you answer if your partner asks you "Why did you go to that bar where we met?" or "Why were you on this dating app on which we met?". You're not going to deconstruct a young adult's motivation to find a mate that easily.

@Thissitehasbecomeadump. Well, "to meet women" is a pretty reasonable reason to be on a dating app. It is not a reason to audit a course with content you learned years ago.

@AzorAhai-him- It may be due to cultural differences (I've spent a bit of time in the US, but not in my younger years), but I know very few women who would be put off by a guy attending a course to meet women. It would raise a giggle at best, just as joining a book club or dance class to meet women.

The idea is pretty good as far as the professor's agency goes, but I believe targeting the invaders would not have much of a positive effect. I would probably rather address the issue of unneeded auditing with the entire class and try to undermine the utility of "private tutoring sessions". After that, how enthusiastic do you think she will be about marrying you or even having sex with you? is likely to be a complete flop, IMHO - not only you offer an easily dismissible argument, you also potentially alienate yourself from women in the audience who want to have their own say in the matter.

@Thissitehasbecomeadump: A bar, book club, and dance class are primarily social spaces, and depending on the details, they may be even primarily intended as mating grounds. By contrast, a university class is primarily a professional space. Also, the students invading the class do so (in my understanding) under false pretenses. Similarly, if you join a book club only for meeting women, i.e., you have zero interest in literature, I would expect that many attendees will see this as exploitative and dishonest.

@Lodinn: After that, how enthusiastic do you think she will be about marrying you or even having sex with you? is likely to be a complete flop, IMHO - not only you offer an easily dismissible argument, you also potentially alienate yourself from women in the audience who want to have their own say in the matter. – Well, I have phrased it as a question for a reason and I honestly expect the answer to be “rather few” than “none at all”.

@Wrzlprmft I agree that attending the class only for meeting women is rather pathetic. But it is not our opinions that matter, it's those of the women involved. The fact that some women are taking them up on their tutoring offers indicates that they're fine with this.

@Thissitehasbecomeadump. You skipped the "content you learned years ago" part of the problem.

Let me add to this answer that, to give students "dating advice", you should be relatable (in terms of dating) to the students (for OP, it seems to be the case).I wouldn't recommend this if you are e.g. much older, a man (beware of mansplaining!) or "socially akward" (for the lack of a better word).

However, I do not like this approach much as I am sure, some women don't see this as creepy (while a lot surely do). Especially if people can come up with an explanation like "I wanted to teach the subject I like and also meet girls". For what it's worth, in this question, some of the womem seem to find the situation funny/acceptable/feel like they can profit from it. This may, in the view of the offenders, invalidate your argument.

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.

The problem with this approach is that it won’t turn off the motivation. Organising official tutoring sessions is great, but you can’t do so by recruiting tutors which you already know to be biased and not motivated to teach per se. If all of this becomes official, it will need to cater ideally equally to people outside the target audience of the invading students, such as non-attractive female students and regular male students.

@Wrzlprmft that's exactly the point, make it such that everyone profits (for example by having them tutor groups). Imho turning off the motivation of male students in fields with few female students after they've seen a way of getting more female contact will be near to impossible. And after all, that's how humans reproduce, so one could even argue that shouldn't be the objective (- please no discussion on that, it won't lead anywhere, it's no excuse for being an ass and even less for harassment!!)

You cannot turn off the motivation that easily (though I think deconstructing their ideas may help), but recruiting explicitly from people whose “bad motivation” made them invade another course is just giving them more power. Also think about the signal it sends: “You know those slimy guys who have been annoying you? We chose to hire them / make it official.”

@Wrzlprmft you're misunderstanding the point. I'm saying "exploit them" not "hire them". And the point before that "actually talk to them", most people are decent enough to get a hint if the hint if spelled out in big enough letters.

+1 I'll hijack this excellent answer with another suggestion (from my own experience) to reduce the STEM students' motivation to engage in this behavior: Have the two departments that are involved (or their student unions) organize shared events. At my university, the math/compsci student union regularly rented out a club downtown, inviting all math/compsci students for a small entrance fee and all psychology/anthropology/anything-mostly-women students for free. Heck the math/compsci student union would even pay cabs from/to campus for them!

@Wrzlprmft Re: “You know those slimy guys who have been annoying you?" I quote the comments by OP to Yachtsun's anwer: "no unwanted advances are taking place", and "There's no un-wanted flirting"

@Thissitehasbecome: But also: “it's painfully obvious to some students of what's taking place” and “It's also demoralizing several of them”.

@Wrzlprmft The first quote one is mostly a value judgment by OP, and doesn't actually mention any problem. That's true for most of the question. The second quote does lead up to an actual problem raised by some of the students; that they're not getting as much attention from these advanced students. Painful and demoralizing, sure, but students not getting any action is really not an issue for university staff to solve.

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.

Generally reasonable ideas (and +1 for addlepated).  However, I'm not sure that a course lecturer will have the power to impose a code of conduct for a course that goes above and beyond the rules of the university; a fortiori if the creation of that code is motivated to remove or hamper a particular group.

@Ben: First, you say "course lecturer" but the OP began by saying they were a professor.  Second: if the code of conduct says that students should take the course out of a desire to learn and must strive to create an environment conducive to the learning of other students, I disagree that this is intended to remove or hamper a particular group...at least, not any group that anyone associated with the university would want to defend.

While it is possible that the university administration could push back against such a code of conduct, it is nevertheless worth a try.  In my opinion the administration would look very bad trying to contest the instructor's desire to create a positive academic environment in their classroom, but unfortunately I agree that sometimes university administrations do things that I would have thought had "prohibitively poor optics."

Finally, in order for such pushback to take place, presumably one of these senior STEM students would have to complain to the administration about it.  In my own experience, the number of students willing to go up against their instructor like this, especially for such a dubious payoff, is very small.  But this is a matter of academic culture, so while I can say that this is not the academic culture I have experienced, of course I can't speak for everyone else.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Yes. It could easily be the case that neither the women nor the men are aware of what constitutes harassment. It will benefit all sides to be better informed.

Someone signing up for the same course as you is NOT sexual harrassment.

@AdamBarnes I agree with your statement.  My suggested actions in my answer aren't predicted on the motivations of anyone signing up for a class, but rather what to do if you are subject to persistent unwanted attention.

@Nicholas Note that the question explicitly states that "there are no unwanted advances", and in later comments OP writes that "There's no un-wanted flirting", below Yachsut's answer. So this answer doesn't really address the question.

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:

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.

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.

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.

An older discussion here on Academia SE regarding grading on a curve: How is grading by curve fair at all? Are there any arguments in favor of it?

@TheAmplitwist I didn't want to start (or summarize) that discussion here, I know this has received ample attention on this forum. So thank you for the link.

Agreed. I hoped that by adding the link in a comment, further discussion can be taken there instead of sidetracking your answer.

About point #2, it's known to "create an unpleasant atmosphere" when the best students always answer questions and showboat. They don't always mean to, and most calm down when they realize they're hurting the other students. But it's "actionable" that you tell then to let someone else answer the Q's, and so on.

@OwenReynolds That's a good addition. My focus was drawn to the more gravely "unpleasant atmosphere" created by some students displaying lecherous behavior.

Anyone care to explain the downvote? I'd be happy to correct or improve my answer where I can.

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.

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?

One place to look for allies is to look at who worked within the university on making the diversity data available. There is a good chance that they'll be not amused by that app.

@MaartenBuis Sadly, the person who more-or-less fills that role is one-track minded: they see this as a good thing, because my classes are now more diversified.

Can you ask that person to visit your class?

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

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.

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.

Taking pictures of ids might get you into legal problems.

@user111388: I do not see how.

Re: "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." Do we have fundamentally differing ideas of fairness? Word would not get out that you are "a harsh instructor", but that you are selectively and publicly shaming a specific protected class. You should assume to get fired quite quickly if anyone has the wits to document this.

@Thissitehasbecomeadump: Who says I am shaming anybody? I am asking different questions depending on the kevel of preparation. And what is unfair here if my questions are worth 0 points?

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.

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

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.

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".

I don't think an instructor is the best person to initiate a social club for dating;)

@user111388 Why not? Who's a better person? My university had organized social events on both small and large scale. And note I didn't say a social club for dating, but at least if you go to an event in order to meet people and some of the people you meet are interested in meeting people for dating you're not completely surprised...vs. if you go to class and it turns out that some people in the class are there to meet people for dating.

I would suggest a student representative (or something similar) such that it doesn't have the flavour of "old people who don't speak youth's language organize something for them":) And sorry, appearently I misinderstood "alternative for what theyre trying to do".


text:
Furlough at university's contract for tenure-track position?
I received my contract for a tenure-track position at a state university in Texas. The contract contains the following: “It is understood that if due to financial necessity, the university implements furloughs for its employees, this position may be subject to the furlough”.
I am quitting a permanent position in another country for this job. But I was thinking that I had safety at least during the tenure-track period. Now I got very concerned because of all the dismissals in big techs and news about an economic recession in the US.
For other people who got tenure-track positions, did you have the same in your contracts?
Any experiences with furloughs due to universities’ ‘financial necessity’?
Suggestions about what to do?

The American Association of University Professors has an FAQ about "best practices" concerning dismissal for reasons of financial necessity. While the AAUP is an independent organization without much "teeth" other than censuring an institution, it does have significant moral clout among academics in the US.  If this clause worries you, you might ask your contacts whether their definitions of "financial necessity" are the same as the AAUP's.

A lot of these answers are geared towards high-tier/R1 universities. Is that the level you've been employed at? Actual furloughs (layoffs) become much more common as you go down the tiers, often due to research dollars becoming less of the budget.

If the school is either part of UT or Texas A&M, then there's the Permanent University Fund to back it up (https://www.utimco.org/funds-managed/endowment-funds/permanent-university-fund-puf).  That fund will level out a lot of potential "financial necessities".  There's talk of including other state university systems in that endowment.  Watch what happens in this pass of the legislature (the biennial session opened this week and runs till May)

My institution, a US state university, has had at least two rounds of furlough while I was there (about 15 years).
One was due to state government austerity, the second was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In both cases, the institution avoided reductions in staff numbers for a rather modest decrease in salary (in the realm of 2% if I remember right, more for some senior administrators with higher salaries), coupled with reduced working hours (so, effectively some unpaid vacation).
Really, in the US you can almost always be dismissed for financial reasons without tenure, and in many places even with tenure. Tenure only protects you from firing for what you study. The bigger protection is that academics expect their jobs to be secure, so an institution that regularly dismissed their tenure track faculty would find difficulty recruiting. I'd say you're fairly safe under those terms, safer than almost any other job, unless you fail to make tenure.

Well, in most universities in the U.S., public or private, whether or not they give explicit contracts, whether or not those contracts mention "financial exigency"... unless you are quasi-protected by a faculty union (unlikely in Texas, and not even accomplished in Minnesota, for possibly-different reasons), ... the university will declare suspension of rules when it chooses to, with exigency given as an excuse for possibly not keeping prior promises.
So, this phrase in your contract is not a "red flag", especially when it arises in Texas at a state school.
Yes, based on past experience of my own, there will be bad financial times every 10 or 15 years, and there'll be a lot of talk... But, in my experience, nothing came of it (either positive or negative). The only thing that did affect my pay was the Covid pandemic... The effect was not nearly as bad as it might have been, thankfully.

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text:
Removal of co-author in new manuscript version after changing of method
Is it correct to remove a co-author from a resubmitted manuscript if the testing protocol was changed and the original experiments of the coauthor are no longer in the paper? The experiments were replaced, the result however is the same.
The co-author developed the method for this assay and worked on the project for at least 6 months. Can their work just be ignored by telling them that their measurements are not in the paper anymore and noone should be an author of the paper if they just measured „similar things“. This all went about behind the back of this co-author.

Good for you :-) this should be the healthy working environment

I'd say both leaving the co-author on the paper and removing them can be justified, so this has to be negotiated between the authors.

And if they do not negotiate?

Is it justified to ignore months of work by replacing the experiments if the results is the same?

@Mnopqrs My comment wasn't on your work relationship. It rather just addresses the question whether from the point of view of attributing the work in a paper somebody who has done what you described should be a co-author or not. From that point of view I say both are legitimate. There are other ways to "not ignore" the work than making the person co-author (e.g., that person may have been paid for this). This of course can change if the person in question has contributed more thought and ideas than just running the experiments that were eventually not used.

The coauthors idea was to run these experiments, and developed the method. The result was the same. No payment, only investment of a lot of time…

@Mnopqrs If you mean that the now removed co-author actually had the idea for the experiments and method that is now in the paper (I hadn't got that before), obviously they should be co-author. Your title says "changing of method" though!? If you want to have advice on what to do, you better write this in the question (and maybe give some more background about the situation) , rather than just asking "is this correct".

Is this the same situation as in your previous question?

The situation has changed: first they told that they replaced the experiments because they had enough messpoints and didn’t need the original ones. They probably realized that it was not ok, now they are telling that the experiments are not exactly the same because they changed the protocol (in the manuscript however there is no change in the materials and methods) So there is no reason to be in the manuscript for „similar“ experiments…

From what I'm seeing here, you were excluded unfairly. If you can't find an academic way to fix that, you could very well sue them.

See here for some better suggestions for how to proceed:  https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/62978/how-to-deal-with-an-author-who-worked-on-an-analysis-that-never-made-it-into-the

Others might have a different opinion on this. My opinion is that it is completely wrong to do so and the expunged person should take action if it is available.
They worked in good faith on the project, presumably. They offered ideas and contributed to conversations. Some of those conversations might, in principle, have cause the group to actually change direction. It is impossible to say, after the fact, that no contributions to the work defined broadly were made.
I'd treat it as a profound professional insult and would, myself, treat no one in that way, nor work with people who do.

That is really wrong as @Buffy says. This is evident, since the authors went behind the co-author's back (I mean if this is ok - why hide it?).
I will add that this kind of behavior, can have far-reaching consequences. Not only will you lose faith with your (presumably no longer) coauthor, most academic sub disciplines are small (say, 50 labs). Word gets around, and this kind of behavior will make it more difficult for a lab to get new students, new collaborators and in some cases hurt the PI's career (if there's a consistent pattern).
In addition, if you're submitting to the same journal (or a journal within the same discipline), then the editor may find out and react accordingly. Furthermore, the removed co-author can easily block the publication (if they're feeling angry enough) by emailing the editor and letting them know. A decent editor would prevent these kinds of shenanigans.

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text:
How to respond to "you must be reviewer #X of my paper!"
Say in a face-to-face conversation,
if a researcher says "You must be reviewer #X of my paper!", which is true,  how should one respond?
(I doubt this would be field-dependent, but I'm mainly interested in the norm of the mathematical community)

I think it actually is field dependent. From various comment threads on this site I remember that people in some fields hold the strict opinion that a reviewer should never disclose their identity to the authors, even after the paper has been published. From personal experience I can say that this opinion is not universally held among (pure) mathematicians, though.

You could take a page from intelligence agencies and say "I will neither confirm nor deny that".

Even more brief, "I can't comment on that".

I'm rather relaxed about this. What harm can be done? Not much, I think.

@ChristianHennig Sounds like you're assuming either a mostly positive review or a reasonable author. Under these assumptions, I would agree.

"Which paper are we talking about?"

A perplexed "why?" can also work. Generally, if you as reviewer go and disclose your identity, that's your right. However, I would consider it intrusive to be asked if I was the reviewer and will do my best to not disclose it, as a matter of principle.

They really shouldn't ask this.  Being evasive is probably going to give it away.  I'd just ask them if they are aware of the "rules"...

I'd say (and I wonder why no one mentioned it) that this depends very much on seniority. It's (imo) very much okay to inform a more junior person that their question was inproper than to tell a famous more senior person (who also might not see a problem with the question and might get away with it often).

It's even more disturbing to be asked "were you Reader 1 on my grant application?"

@NateEldredge or good old "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you"...

Did they specifically say Reviewer 2? because that's a meme.

hypotheticals are not very well-suited for StackExchange. Do you have actual, real problem you want to solve?

@davolfman, Somehow I was not aware of the Reviewer #2 meme. Now I know. In one case, X is indeed 2. But I also reviewer #2 in that cases, so either could be true.

@aaaaasaysreinstateMonica, This is not a hypothetical question. I have encountered some awkward conversations in 3 separate occasions. Each situation is slightly different, but I found them equally uncomfortable. And I want to see if there is some standard solution.

@Timmy then you should ask the specific question

In my field, "were you reviewer 3?" is a common joke, not a serious question.

I had to read several comments here before I got that the intended intonation was that which meant "I have deduced that you are reviewer #X", not "I insist that you review my paper at position #X in line".

The missed joke here is: "you might very well think that, but I couldn't possibly comment".

"You must be reviewer #X of my paper!"

"Maybe. Maybe not!"
Then move on with the conversation about science or other topics.  It's not your role to teach your peers that they shouldn't think too hard about who were the reviewers.

I like this answer the most because it seems the least hostile against people who might not be aware that this is an invalid question.

My favorite, the least negative and least confrontational.

I agree this is a good answer. But if they persist, perhaps it could be your role to explain to them why they shouldn't ask, and you could explain it gently and helpfully.

My answer would probably what I really believe to be true:

Nothing good can generally come by thinking too hard who a specific reviewer might have been.

That's true, and it's also a deflection. Anyone with social skills will drop the topic. If they insist, I'd just repeat the statement until the point sinks in.

What if they say "Why? It would be interesting to talk to you about the paper." Are you just going to repeat it?

@Roland If they were the reviewer, you can be sure that they have read it thoroughly. If you don't know if they were the reviewer, they might not have read it at all.

@Roland OK. Perhaps they should not have said it. But the question is about what to say in reply, if they do say it.

I'd just repeat the phrase until they get that that line of questions is not something I want to pursue, whether or not I was the reviewer.

It's probably a good answer - I just feel it would be hard to say this to a much more senior and famous person.

@toby544 I think in that case the asker has unfortunately botched their chance to discuss with this person

@WolfgangBangerth and others, I think it is usually possible to be considerate and helpful towards a person who asks an inappropriate question. They probably don't understand why it is inappropriate, and it would be helpful to them in the future if we could gently explain to them. (But I agree with user111388 that it would be different and harder with a much more senior or famous person.)

@Roland I think one can use that directly, with a smile. "It doesn't matter if someone was the reviewer if you want to discuss a paper."

So the question is opinion-based.

I'd probably respond along the lines of "If I was your reviewer, and wanted you to know that, I would have told you".
The exception is if the question came from a young investigator, in which case I'd be less snarky and probably explain that many consider the question improper.

... though my policy on reviewing papers is to not write anything I wouldn't say face to face with an author.

This is good life advice in general for all anonymous feedback. If not what you wouldn't say face to face, at least keep an empathetic tone as if they might somehow read it some day.

@russellpierce, actually, it's probably not great advice for grant reviews.  The NIH agrees.  The applicants know with certainty who's in the room, but individuals need to know that they have complete freedom to say what's on their mind confidentially.  I still try to live by that "would say it to their face" standard, but if I need to dump it during grant review I won't hesitate.

Related anecdote (not an answer).
Years ago I submitted a paper to journal X. Nearly a year passed with no referee report. I bothered the editor periodically, and they told me they prompted the reviewer.
At a conference I attended I struck up a casual mathematical conversation with someone I knew only from his work. He was very interested in what I was doing, so we spent a long evening together where I explained the results in my paper.
Very shortly thereafter the paper was accepted. The inference is obvious. Neither of us ever talked about this matter, but we went on to do some joint work.

Actually, since the question is a bit improper, you can answer any way that you like. But answering such a question with

Why would you even think that I was?

seems to be a good start, answering a question with another question.
The only really bad answer would be one that results in a fight, short or long term.
But even

That isn't really a proper question.

is valid.
Even a lie in response to an invalid question is only a minor infraction of social norms (IMO). Especially so if it avoids a fight.

Best not to lie.

If they treat "Why would you even think that I was" as a serious question, they may detail their reasons why they think that, and that may land you in a worse position.

"Why would you even ask such a thing?"
Tone of voice should convey that, no, you don't actually want an answer, you want them to recognize the impropriety of the question and move along smartly.
"I can neither confirm nor deny."
This is from the defense community, and is a standard way to tell, e.g., vendors and sales representatives (among many others) to back off and stop asking unanswerable questions, because it's really rude.

These are quite hostile answers. Perhaps the person doesn't understand why you would dislike the question, or perhaps they were asking in a naive and friendly way.

I don't intend, and wouldn't deliver them as "hostile."  But I would intend and deliver them as "pointed", because the situation is already a faux pas.

I think "I can neither confirm nor deny" has a bit of a memetic meaning of "yes", so I think I'd avoid that one in favor of more neutral language like in Wolfgang's answer if you're intending to actually be neutral.

Asking questions is really rude? If asked in a rude way, yes. If asked in a polite way, no. And whether a question is "unanswerable", that opinion will vary depending on who you ask. I do agree that refusing to confirm/deny is effective in many situations.

For a more complete comment I should have included: Sometimes the content of a question can be rude because it's too personal or intrusive, but that's another matter.

@Mentalist If you ask someone a question you know they cannot answer because of some prior legal obligation, because you are hoping to catch them in an unguarded moment and get them to blurt out an answer, or get information from a brief facial expression, yes, that is rude.

As a response different from the norm: I have had reviewers of my papers not only tell me that they reviewed my papers (confirming my suspicions, but unsolicited!), but also collaborate with me or recommend other collaborators.
I think this would generalize to smaller communities, where maybe only a dozen people in the world will review studies on a particular technique or subject. In my case, my mentor pointed out that the reviews in question raised valid criticisms, and responding to them strengthened the final paper.
If the review itself is professional and helpful, then knowing the reviewer wouldn't do that much harm, especially in a small community if the risk of no review or an unexpert review is far greater than the risk of an unconsciously biased review.

Another possible deflection is "Oh, I surely don't remember, since I look at sooo many things. In any case, what was your paper about? I might be interested in it." ? :)

Obviously this person is just really happy to have 'found' you!
Writing math paper is a strange experience. The person has probably spent a long time in a very intensive relationship with mathematical objects that no-one else around them can see or hear or has even heard of. Writing things down in theory makes it possible that other people will learn about this world where they spent so much of their time, sorrow and joy over the last few months, but hey, let's not kid ourselves, almost nobody reads math papers for fun and those who do have a pile of 100s of papers they hope to get to someday.
So after spending all this blood, sweat and tears there is only a small handful of people that even know the characters and places that made up such a large part of your life, and as they are anonymous and scattered around the globe there is no hope of ever meeting them.
Now running into one, by chance, in real life, is a magical experience!
I think the cold reactions advertised in the other answers are undeserved and do no-one a favor. The best action is to reveal yourself and have a nice chat about the content of the paper.
Simply by having carefully read the paper and being a person of flesh and blood you can make this researcher's day in a way no one else can. Who would pass up such an opportunity?

Why the downvote? More generally: what is wrong with being nice to people? Or honest? (These are serious questions, not rhetorical)

"Why? Was it rejected?"

It's something the researcher would say. Not the reviewer

@SnackExchange you need to pause between the two sentences


text:
Are there any known Universities that refuse to pay for paywall access to academic journals?
Are there any known Universities that refuse to pay for paywall access (for moral, intellectual, inability to pay, or other reasons) to academic journal articles?

Sci-Hub and LibGen, depending on your point of view, occupy at best a copyright gray area and at worst are outright illegal. I doubt that any universities would actually officially advocate for their use at this time. (Of course, de facto the faculty and students will have to find alternative venues to access the journal articles if the subscription is cut off.) It would therefore be perhaps better to remove the references to SciHub and LibGen specifically, and instead ask about which universities have refused to pay for journal access, period.

There are certainly many universities that have canceled large numbers of journal subscriptions and left their faculty in the unenviable position of having to use services like this or buy access directly from publishers.

@BrianBorchers Why is using services like this unenviable? I find it convenient.

@WillieWong changed the wording of my question based on your comment. I was careful not to state that they were aware of any illegal activity. Downloading and sharing of copyrighted content (which I did not mention) may be treated differently (at least in some countries) than just viewing or reading it online.

Based on the feedback I received I have edited out a my mention of Sci Hub and LibGen and marked the answer to the first part of my question by  @FranckDernoncourt below as correct

@BenCrowell It indicates that there exist free alternatives, so I think it's appropriate to mention them (or any other similarly convenient services, no preference).

@FranckDernoncourt I will draft a second question regarding knowledge of University use of those resources, without combining it with my first question which you already answered

@MagnusGustafson Sounds good (and sounds like the question that would earn me downvotes), thanks!

No University has enough funding to spend on subscription fees for all existing paywalled research articles (e.g., Harvard University says it can't afford journal publishers' prices). As a result, some of their faculty and student resort to free alternatives SciHub/LibGen/emailing colleagues/etc.
Many universities located in developing countries cannot afford paying for paywalls.
If you need a particular University name, here are some:
University of Sierra Leone:

When he needs new books to teach one of his courses, Professor Ibrahim Abdullah orders at least two from abroad: one for himself, one to give to the university library. If he needs scholarly articles, he writes to his friends overseas and asks them to send copies, since the university cannot afford journal subscriptions.

All public universities, research institutes and state agencies in Peru (translated by Google):

Bad news for research and technological innovation come from Peru. The
  National Council for Science, Technology and Technological Innovation
  (Concytec), a government agency, will no longer offer free access to
  the ScienceDirect and Scorpus databases by the end of the year. The
  lack of funding from the central government has been the cause of the
  closure of these platforms for Peruvians.
Access had been enabled for public universities, research institutes
  and state agencies. ScienceDirect (Freedom Collection) gathers more
  than 1,800 titles in full text scientific journals in 24 thematic
  areas and Scopus meets "relevant sources for basic research, applied
  research and technological innovation and is a tool for bibliometric
  studies" according to the portal Concytec .
Access was open since 2014 and during that time 3.7 million full-text
  documents were downloaded. The downloads, according to Concytec, would
  have cost US $ 131 million if they had been isolated. While
  subscribing to these services for three years cost the agency only US
  $ 10 million.

A few other places:

Dutch universities start their Elsevier boycott plan
Germany-wide consortium of research libraries announce boycott of Elsevier journals over open access
Taiwan Tech to Discontinue Subscription to Elsevier ScienceDirect Starting 2017

Some interesting maps showing the location of Sci-Hub users (at least the location of the machine that makes the final request):

Kinda-relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1138/

@Azor-Ahai :) Good point, I wish plots were normalized by the population. But at least it reflects the newspaper article's title "Who's downloading pirated papers? Everyone"

Yeah, and you can see the Middle East and India is over represented.

The city data at the end is probably an artifact of geolocation as applied to automated scripts. Requests from Amazon Web Services machines will often come back geolocated to Ashburn, while requests from Fremont could be from one of Linode's more popular cloud hosting locations. Those hotspots could simply represent one or more people running a script to download large numbers of papers rather than large numbers of users in these locations using the site.

@ZachLipton People who need a dump of Sci-Hub/libgen would rather use the torrent files created for that purpose, and therefore shouldn't appear on the map as it only shows HTTP requests.  (Bulk download Sci-Hub papers)

FWIW, there's a population-adjusted map on Wikipedia (scroll down a bit on the right). Even there, it's somewhat misleading, because the percent of the population likely to be interested in academic journal articles (e.g. students, researchers, medical professionals, etc...) will vary greatly between countries. Sci-Hub may be extremely important to the vast majority of a country's grad students and researchers, but still underused by the broader population, especially where there exists greater educational inequality or even literacy.

@FranckDernoncourt Perhaps, and maybe some of that traffic is people running proxies through cloud hosting services and accessing it through HTTP. And not everyone uses the "best" method of access even when it is available. I don't have the one true explanation, but when you see a ton of network activity from a network hub like Ashburn, it usually doesn't mean lots of Ashburn residents are actually responsible.

@ZachLipton I agree.

Another reason is that areas with large academic populations also have large not-quite-academic populations (high-tech businesses, sceince writers, policy people, those trying to get back into academia...)  These people may well lack journal access but want it occasionally.

This is not about a university, but I guess it also fits the bill:
The german "Hochschul-Rektoren-Konferenz" (German's Rectors Conference) has lauched "Projekt DEAL" where many (all?) German universities jointly negotiate with Elsevier about prices. Since the negotiations did not went well for the universities, the over 60 German universities and libraries canceled their subscription to all their Elsevier packages to the next possible date. My university has no subscription to any Elsevier journal starting 01.01.2017. It is currently analyzed what actions shall be taken with other publishers.
Read some background:

Official project website (in German)
An article on ip-watch
News from Göttingen's university library

Apparently Peru and Taiwan are in a similar situation.

Universities in the US do not refuse paywall access to journals for moral or intellectual reasons.  However, budget limitations may mean that subscriptions that are deemed less important may be canceled.

Part of the motivation behind the budget allocation choices is moral and intellectual. E.g., https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/24/harvard-university-journal-publishers-prices : "There's always been a problem with this being seen as a library budget issue. The memo from Harvard makes clear that it's bigger than that. It's at the heart of education and research. If you can't get access to the literature, it hurts research."

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Can I use an MSc lecturer as an academic reference for another MSc degree?
I have a BSc and MSc in Architecture (2011). I am close to completing a second MSc and would like to go for a third MSc in Canada. Can a lecturer from the second MSc be a reference in the 3rd MSc application?
I used a lecturer from my undergraduate studies as an academic reference for the second MSc (the only lecturer I kept in touch with). He has written a lot of references for me and I would love not to bother him this time.

Yes. A lecturer from your most recent academic program would generally be a good choice of referee.


text:
The reviews are completed but the editor does not send the final decision and I am in a hurry
I have submitted a paper and both reviewers stated that the work is very well-written, novel, very well-done etc., and asked only some very easy questions. After I sent the revised version, on the same day both reviewers completed their review report (I could see the status on the tracking system). So based on the previous positive comments, and the short time for them to complete the second review, I assumed they accepted the article. It has been 2 weeks now and still the editor did not send us their decision. I am giving birth in a couple of weeks and I really need to handle this before my due date. What should I do? Is it wise to send them an email stating the reason I am in a hurry for the editor's decision?

After accept decisions, editors usually only need the source files for the articles. Prepare everything and when the decision comes you just need to send an email. I'm not sure if rushing the editors is the right way to go.

Please frame your question. What is the issue stressing you? To have the official acceptance letter of the paper before giving birth or the work needed to be carried out  between acceptance and publication of the paper?

Two weeks in my view isn't a lot. OK, optimally a decision can be made in few days in such a situation, but the editor may be travelling or have other urgent things to do. It is absolutely not unusual that people have a backlog of two or even three of four weeks to work through.

Two weeks is plenty of time to make a decision, so feel free to nudge the editor (especially since "I am giving birth soon and won't be available for a while" is a reason most people will empathize with).

Depends on the journal. In my field, some journals have an editorial board that makes recommendations to the main editors, and then they meet monthly to decide which to accept. Bugging the editorial board member will do nothing.

I've never even heard of a decision taking so little time, let alone ever experiencing it. In my field (biology/bioinformatics) it usually takes several months to go from submission to acceptance/rejection.

@terdon yes, but that's from submission to decision. Right now the status for the OP's manuscript is "reviews completed".

Ah yes, indeed. Fair point.

I am giving birth in a couple of weeks and I really need to handle
this before my due date

First: congratulations!
Second: do not let being a mother completely define you. You will still be a scientist, although with a seriously impaired agenda (don't worry, it is really so, it would be stupid to claim otherwise and it will be even more stupid to discriminate you on that basis).
Third: even if the paper is accepted tonight, it is quite likely the paper will still require minimal editing and input from you for the final version in 3/4 weeks. You may still find the time to do that or you may delegate one of the co-authors to do that, maybe prepare them to be able to work with the processed data and the needed plotting scripts?
All the best for your future!

If this is your meaning, it might be worth clarifying "seriously impaired agenda in the short term".

@GregMartin let's put it clear: there is a reason if we consider advanced countries the ones giving 6 months, 1 year or even 2 years of maternal paid leave. I totally agree with the definition of civilized country a country that takes care human in their most vulnerable times, which means childhood, teenager-time, elder time and the transition from adults to parents.
Do (hard working, honest) people have to pay 40% of taxes to sustain such an environment? yes, do the maths, I am ready to accept such a "burden" to live in a decent society.


text:
Finding a thesis advisor for master's degree in physics of complex system
I'm currently in my last year of my master's degree program "Physics of Complex System". I would like to write my master thesis about stochastic processes, but I'm having trouble in finding a good advisor with a good project within Europe, I'm planning of continuing my education with a Phd. Any advices?

Typically you get your advisor from your own institution. Your university makes the certificate indicating that you are "good". They put their reputation on the line by making that statement. So most universities want some quality control for at least the most central courses, like a thesis.
Also, think of this from the point of view of the advisor. Advising students is work, often enjoyable work, but still work. We usually get assigned students or a number of students we have to take, or we have to teach less other courses if we take x students, or in some other way get told by the department to do this for our own students. If we take outside students, that just adds to our workload, and is not compensated. However, enjoyable advising students is, I can think of even more enjoyable things to do, like playing with my own kids.


text:
Are there any resources out there to help you find inspiration for a PhD topic?
I got my Master's degree in mathematics in 2017. Since then, I haven't done a lot of maths, so I am a bit rusty. I am now considering doing a PhD in maths, but I have little-to-no idea for a topic.
I seem to understand that it is not unusual for prospect PhD students to be without a topic at first and be sort of "assigned" one by their supervisor, but I think I would nonetheless benefit from having at least some sort of idea. Ever since I picked up math, I think I've been more drawn to more abstract and theoretical math and not at all to applied math. I am fascinated by number theory problems, and I like algebra so I thought I could do something related to them. My bachelor's thesis was on algebraic topology and my master's thesis about wreath products and the Rubik's cube. However, PhD my topic doesn't necessarily have to be related to these. I can't say I have any preference at this stage, and I'm trying to find one.
I tried to get some inspiration by going to the campus library and checking out different books, but that didn't work well for me. Most books are extremely technical and you can't just flick through one to get a sense of whether you like the subject or not. (More often than not, the title won't even tell you if the book is worth picking up.) I tried googling, reading Wikipedia, etc, but I can't say that helped, either.
What I'm after is some sort of overview that presents problems in different fields, explaining why they're important/intriguing, where we're stuck with them, pointing out connections with other problems or branches of maths. Something that tries to "sell" you a topic, if you will.
I'm not sure such a thing even exists, so any suggestion you might have to help me get an idea will be much appreciated.

Are you currently in a doctoral program?

@Buffy No, not yet

As a clarification are you looking around to try and work out what kind of supervisor you want, i.e. you want to hear about a lot of different fields of maths so you can be certain with what field you want your supervisor to be from?

@NAMcMahon Sort of. My options are limited because I am in no position to travel, nor do I want to. There are two universities that I have access to where I live, so those are my options, and I'm starting just now to get in touch with people there. I know many will say that if I don't want to travel, that's a problem, but that's simply a non-negotiable in my situation.

In most places it is too early for you to commit to any particular thing. That would be especially true in the US, but also other places to a lesser degree.
I suggest that, at the moment you think about what sorts of math you enjoy doing and have some interest and insight into. It need not be terribly specific. Maybe number theory in your case or some subfield of that. My own narrowing led me to Real Analysis and/or Point-Set Topology (yes, long ago and far away). I ended up with a really nice dissertation in Real Analysis (Last of His Kind).
Next find a university that has a few faculty members with similar interests as evidenced by their publications. Schools with large faculty may automatically serve in some cases, but having a weekly or so "seminar" in some related area is a good sign. Apply there and get accepted.
Now you are in a position to sit down and talk to people in the area who can describe things that you might find interesting. If there are three or four faculty there then you have a good chance of getting inspiration from at least one of them. I talked to a couple of people who claimed not to have any fresh ideas at the time, but recommended me to the "senior" member of the group who took me on.
Some places (US) this is easy to do since the program is a bit longer than others. In other places you need to do this remotely since you may need to find an advisor to get accepted to the program.
But the best source of inspiration is to be somewhat adjacent to a person who can help you.
Mathematics itself is huge. There are a huge number of possibilities. You can spend too much time searching in this vast space being intrigued by many things. But a knowledgeable person can help you focus, provided that you can narrow the field somewhat. Collaboration is a really good thing in math. Sharing ideas. Inspiring one another.

I'll also note that if your proposed topic is too specific and if you are too insistent on that and that alone, it will be harder to find an advisor/supervisor interested enough to take you on. You need some flexibility at this stage and the willingness to compromise enough to get through a degree. There is no need to do something you'd hate, though. But, math is, like I said, huge.

Disclaimer: any field of knowledge is huge, when you need to pinpoint a theme for your PhD.
I always tell people that while a Master thesis is 6-12 months work focused on one curricula exam, a PhD is 3-4 years of work focused on one topic of one curricula exam.

I think a main source of inspiration can be other academic studies. Particularly in the conclusion part will be a section or a paragraph, that includes suggestions for further/ future studies. You can use these sections to find new topics or advice.

tl;dr: You just need to read through recently published PhD thesis. If this does not help, if it does not raise minimum interest and "I can do that" thoughts in you, nor motivate you, then you are done: a PhD is not for you ;)

In research it is often oversold the concept of novelty. And from the exterior, it may even exist the myth of the romantic researcher battling their demons and developing their ideas out of hard work and thin air.
In reality, we stand on the shoulder of giants(Lincoln, 1905). In fact, the capital sin in science is copying without referencing. An even worse sin is referencing without copying, reinventing the wheels and wasting resources on the way.
Therefore, if you want to draw inspiration for your PhD, just look for recent PhD thesis.
It will give you a glimpe of the work that expect you. To give a broad approximation, for every written page you read in a PhD thesis, assume the author wrote 20 pages of notes and probably read (or at least skimmed through) 400 pages of papers, books, conference proceedings, preprints ... then ask yourself: is it really what I want for the next 4 years of my life?

! The answer may be yes or no, don't worry :)

That doesn't answer my question. I did not ask about the kind of work that expects me, I asked about possible ways to find out what topic might interest me without having to read through entire books first.

tl;dr: You just need to read through PhD thesis! If this does not help, or intrigue nor motivate, you, then you are done: a PhD is not for you ;)