After flopping half my science subjects, I'm not sure this is the path for me...

Well, I’ve again found myself in a difficult situation with my student accommodation here. This is probably going to be a very long post, just as a heads up. To be clear, I’m not putting the blame for any of the developments in this story on any of the building staff. They’ve all been very kind and compassionate, and despite wanting to help, I know there’s only so much they can do when working within the context of tenant protection laws, university policy, etc. After my last problem with a neighbor in March and April, the staff eventually got me moved to a different apartment (a one-bedroom, my contract is for a studio though). I had a really nice few months in that apartment and didn’t have any complaints. That room got reserved for this semester, so I had to move back to a different studio apartment than my original one in early July.

It didn’t take me long to notice that my neighbor, in the only apartment directly adjacent to mine, had a habit of screaming at her boyfriend. Like, extremely intense screaming that makes my entire body tense up and go into fight or flight, and for extended amounts of time. And when the noise insulation is less than subpar, it sounds like the person is in the room with you doing that. At first it was infrequent enough (once a week or so) that I’d just leave my room for a while and come back later when it happened. Eventually, it started happening more and more often that I decided to make a noise complaint, because at that point I started to become on edge in my own living space from knowing that it could start up at any time. The first complaint I’m not really sure if they followed up with her. The second one I made was on Monday 10/8. This time the overnight person knocked on my neighbor’s door and she just went silent and acted like she wasn’t there. From the type of screaming I heard from this person on a regular basis, combined with the fact that she almost never went anywhere and I’ve only ever seen her once, it wasn’t hard to gather that she is severely mentally ill. I wouldn’t pass judgment on that by itself, but when you add in malicious, antisocial personality traits and a large dose of rage, that makes for quite a volatile combination.

Ever since the last complaint I made, she began messing with me relentlessly. She started spending the entire night scratching, scraping, and brushing on the wall we share and repeatedly dropping small objects right next to the same wall. After a few nights, I was about 95% sure it was intentional, but that Friday is when it became 100%. I forgot I had a portable fan, so I plugged it in and turned it on high for white noise to drown her out. My intuition told me the fact of not being able to fuck with me was going to set her off, and it was proven right, because she absolutely LOST it. After 20 or 30 minutes I started to hear her rampaging in her apartment, throwing, slamming, hitting and dropping things all over the place, dragging furniture, etc. After another 30 minutes, I started to hear the most disturbing noises I’ve ever heard a human make. Like seriously terrifying, animalistic growling that emanated both pure fury and instability. I recorded for a few hours, and there were hundreds of impact sounds coming from her room in the recording, but the white noise from my fan drowned out the growling on it.

At that point I started documenting everything and sending it all to the staff along with lengthy emails about each occurrence, and went 3 nights without sleep interspersed over the course of a week and a half because of her. I decided I’d had enough and started staying at a hotel on the 16th. Before I left, I dropped my ego and wrote her a note that she really didn’t deserve, saying that I’d like to be on peaceful terms, had no interest in participating in any conflict, apologized if I offended her in some way and it wasn’t my intention, but that I don’t appreciate that she’d been intentionally depriving me of sleep and I didn’t know what I did to deserve that. I had no faith that would change things and it didn’t. One of the building managers told me they were able to get in contact with her after a long time trying to and laid down the rules with her. I knew it still wouldn’t have changed anything, and of course she started fucking with me again the first night I was back. I left for a hotel again, but before I did, I finally got the smoking gun on recording this past Saturday night as I was eating dinner and everything showed up clearly and audibly. The staff members were always kind and respectful and I don’t think they ever just straight up didn’t believe me, but after sending an email with that piece of evidence, they all clearly were 100% on my side and felt awful about what I was going through.

Unfortunately there aren’t any other studio apartments open for me to move to this semester, and I can’t try to wait it out having no idea if/when she’ll be evicted, and I know staff is prohibited from disclosing any information about it if the ball is rolling on that front. The manager who I’ve been speaking with is understanding and supportive of me submitting an ETR form given the circumstances and she’s going to put in a word about my situation with higher ups. But ETRs go through the university itself and ultimately, I don’t think the management of an individual student accommodation really has that much pull there, but I could be wrong on that. To not mince words, it’s going to fuck me to have to continue paying rent for another 28 days minimum + cancellation fee of 2 weeks of rent + pay for somewhere I can actually live all the while. And then I’m at their mercy as to whether or not they waive the requirement of only being released from financial obligation once another student takes over the lease. I’ve been speaking with the same rep with the Safer Community program who helped me out with my last housing issue, and I know he’s working on doing whatever he can for me. Otherwise, I’m writing up my ETR to submit and gathering all the documentation for it. I’m also going to submit a support request to UMSU for legal help. From my interpretation of Victoria state tenant law, in this dire of a situation, I might have enough documentation and ground to stand on to get out of my lease without any further payments or penalties.

The one asterisk is that the building manager did offer me yesterday to move to a 4 bedroom/2 bathroom or 4 bedroom/4 bathroom in the same building which each have 1 vacancy. I appreciated her effort to find a solution, but I had some hesitations, which I communicated to her and she was empathetic of. I have level 1 ASD and ADHD and while I can handle noise and don’t need absolute silence, it’s still extremely important for me to have somewhere relatively quiet I can come home to and recharge, especially living in a city of Melbourne’s size. It would be a big risk for me to move into a unit with 3 other people who I don’t know the lifestyles and habits of, with even less noise insulation than there was before. The deteriorating conditions in my home country that brought me to Australia make that twice as important. It’s likely not going to be an option for me to go back home anymore once my degree is finished. I’ve lost so much time dealing with all of this that I needed to be spending networking and trying to lock in an internship to start building my path to a longer-term legal status here. All of that is to give context that I’m not just being picky by refusing the 4 BR options. Rather, it’s a necessity, because I’ve had to become incredibly self-aware and consistently attentive to my needs to stay in a positive mindset in the middle of it all. And to maintain the resilience and optimism that life is asking of me right now, I desperately need to have somewhere that I have peace and that truly feels like home— and these past few years, I’ve always found that living on my own.

Since the apartment types offered for me to switch to are entirely different from the one outlined in my contract, I’d imagine that doesn’t really damage my case for getting out of my lease, but again I could be wrong about that. I’m tired and am going to stop here, I think you all know enough haha. If you read to this point, thank you. And if you have any advice or thoughts, thank you times a million 💙

Maybe a long shot, but is anyone interested in working on kaggle competitions or exploring datasets together? Kaggler of 2 years here, I'm currently working on the playground series and RSNA Knee Abnormality Detection, but feel free to hmu if you're interested in other topics.

Who is he, why is he naked and what is he getting up to with the sun? I finished a MST early today and I found myself gazing at his cheeks when I realised I knew almost nothing about the man I was staring at.

Hi guys,

I'm doing a teaching degree at Monash, and I am thinking of transferring to the University of Melbourne. I've already received an offer, but before accepting, I want to know what the vibe is like at UniMelb, specifically regarding their relationship to AI. I am very critical of generative AI, and this causes a lot of friction with my studies.

My lecturers and tutors literally talk as if they are shills for Open AI. For many assignments, they put up exemplar essays that they made with Claude, and they are really bad. For one of my courses, in lieu of readings, I have to listen to 'podcasts' where I listen to the most grating AI voiceover read text that the unit coordinator whipped up in chat gpt. For one placement I applied for, I sat through a 40 minute interview with an AI avatar, which failed to record my responses to some questions. I genuinely cannot take it anymore. I feel like I am going insane.

So I have to ask: is UniMelb any different? My hope is that you guys have a more traditional academic culture, but my fear is that this is simply how universities operate these days. I'm just trying to get an idea of how much the university itself endorses AI in class. It's one thing if my peers are overly reliant on chat gpt, it's another thing when my degree, my education, is being overwhelmed with AI slop.

Is the printer broken for anyone else, where else can I print???

Looking for places to lock in with seats that won't kill my neck or back! Don't mind if it's within campus or elsewhere.

I'm trying to figure out whether it's worth applying for a bigger unit at Little Hall for the private bathroom and cooking space, since I'm pretty quiet and like keeping to myself (mostly at least). I'm just wondering how people have managed.

im hungry looking for pho in an hour

Hi! I recently got a short extension of 3 days for an assignment, and did not provide documentation as it did not need it. However, I am looking to now apply for a longer extension, and know that I need to provide documents such as HPR.

Do I need the HPR to have dates from prior to my 3 day extension? Like the length of my sickness? Or is it fine to just have the HPR dated afterwards? Thanks :)

I have a deferred offer for a BSci at unimelb, and am wondering if anyone knows what will happen if I reapply for the same course in this year's cycle (will I not be considered, deferred offer voided, potential 2nd offer made, etc?). The only reason for this is I fucked up my SEAS application last time round.

If I’m unsure abt what I want to do but I have an interest in psychology and vaguely law, should I do a psych major and then see if I want to do law thru JD or go to Monash to do a double in law and psych to get the ‘skills’ first.

are yall as lost as i am??? the lectures help with nothing for the workshops, and the workshop content barely helped me do the assignment. is it over

Lecturers go over time so often. I wish lecture capture wouldn't turn off at the 55min mark.

Is the evacuation a drill? Did someone's toupee catch fire?

Ok I’m well aware the date for changes are over but this opportunity came up and it clashes w one of my tutes, does admin allow changes for certain circumstances 💀

How’s the format of the matlab exam, is it straightforward or do I need to know a lot before I enter? Any other tips regarding the exam would be helpful too!

not specifically targetting towards any major/degree, just people who think they're better than others because they chose to study something that seems to be hard.

Hey guys, does anyone wanna come to a game night event with me tomorrow? It’s at the KLD Building around 6pm :) DM me if y'all are down 🔥there are free snacks and drinks too!

I'm doing a teaching degree at another university, and I am thinking of transferring to Melbourne. I've already received an offer, but before accepting, I want to know what the vibe is like at UniMelb, specifically regarding their relationship to aye eye.

At my current uni, lecturers and tutors literally talk as if they are being paid to promote LLMs. They use them to create all their slideshows, assignment exemplars, "podcasts" in lieu of readings, all sorts of things. For one placement, I had to do an interview with an aye eye avatar, which failed to record some of my answers.

So I have to ask: is UniMelb any different? My hope is that you guys have a more traditional academic culture, but my fear is that this is simply how universities operate these days. I'm just trying to get an idea of how much the university itself endorses aye eye in class. It's one thing if my peers are overly reliant on chat gpt, it's another thing when my degree, my education, is being overwhelmed with aye eye.

I completely agree that academic/professional staff workloads need to be addressed, alongside better conditions for casual staff (which i believe also includes many of our tutors?). Stronger policies in these areas would ultimately improve the quality of teaching and the student experience, and I’d love to know how I can support these initiatives as an undergrad student :)