u/Excellent-Club8123

This is a chinese rednote post. Are these events all true, or were they fabricated to attract attention and generate traffic?

Before starting my PhD:

1. A current PhD student spread rumors about me offline, calling me “someone copying her,” simply because we had similar educational backgrounds and trajectories and I was about to attend the same university.

First semester:

1. Right at the beginning, I was harassed and threatened with late-night weekend phone calls by a cohort peer in my department. I reported this to HR, the program director, Title IX, and the department.
2. My male roommate frequently brought different women home without notice. He also stole food from me and another roommate, then openly demanded that we split all household expenses evenly. He even ate things my visiting friend had bought for me. During an argument, he threatened to reveal my home address to the same colleague who had threatened me earlier.

Second semester:

1. A classmate in a very small seminar was both sexist and racist. He excluded me from discussions, and when I had nothing to say in class, he mocked me. I began having stress reactions—stomach pain and dizziness—whenever I attended. The professor, who spent group discussion time on their phone, was unaware of the subtle exclusion I faced and instead emailed me criticizing me for being late, skipping class, and not participating, framing it as disrespectful to others.
2. A new roommate flooded the apartment ceiling and nearly caused a fire by leaving the stove on when going out. He brushed it off without apology and even asked me to deal with the apartment management about the water-damaged ceiling.

Third semester:

1. As a TA, I caught a student committing academic misconduct. What followed were hearings, appeals, and more hearings. The professor was falsely accused by the student and ended up in a lawsuit that is still ongoing. I became a key witness and have had to testify repeatedly. I care deeply about my professor and have no complaints about supporting her, but the whole situation has been extremely overwhelming.

Fourth semester:
Thankfully, nothing happened.

Fifth semester:

1. The professor I TA for wrote a long email claiming that the web-based game I created for teaching was useless and full of bugs, and that using it in class would only waste time.
2. I couldn’t read some students’ handwriting when grading. I posted a small cropped image (with no names or course information) on social media to vent, but someone who had been monitoring me reported me to the department, my collaborating professor, and my advisor, accusing me of a serious violation of privacy.

Sixth semester:

1. While dealing with the union, I was subtly—and sometimes not so subtly—told that I could be fired if I didn’t pay dues. However, the amount they charged me was incorrect. When I requested a correction, I was ignored. When I sought help online, I was called a “scab” and a “liar,” and union members flooded my post with verbal attacks. No one seemed to care that the issue stemmed from their own administrative error.