You also left out the possibility that the student is under an IMMENSE amount of pressure to succeed from family.

I've actually saw that happen a couple of times back in college (my university was good, but not in a good area,) where the pressure some students faced because they were the first one to go to college/etc. At a young age something like this could have a huge impact on how ones family views them.

BuildTheRobots is right. If we're really feeling that callous, we might as well calculate the value to her of a life-year (disability-adjusted for old age, naturally) for an elderly pet and show that the expected disutility to failing out of her university is comparable to that for the other calamities you're saying would justify her behavior.

And if we're not in such a mood, we might as well recognize that she's more likely to get a wider audience and an acceptable solution by embarrassing both herself and the guilty parties here with a strong display of emotional distress.