How can we determine what's paranoia and what's factual? Given the mind-boggling extent of NSA programs, nearly anything could be possible, and that makes it all the more difficult to determine the truth.
I was struck by how the art student had no way of showing whether her misfortunes were accidental or related to her investigation. Is there a way she could have seen who was reading her email?
Assuming that the mail system had sufficiently detailed logs, she could have asked her university sysadmins.