Paranoia.

Friends of mine are very paranoid about my upcoming administrative pay expose about people at my school who are skimming quite large sums through payraises.

One is a (white) academic who was raised blue collar in a rust belt town; he said in all honesty he'd be worried about people slitting his tires, if he was me.

Another is a (black) acquaintance who grew up in the university neighborhood and is a bar bouncer in a hipster neighborhood; he said to let him know if "anyone tries anything".

It's amazing, the fear that is out there.  People see people with money and power and their mind just runs away with them.

My one friend who teaches modern Czech literature doesn't think my dissertation committee would even think of doing anything to impede graduation, since that'd bounce back on them; she said it's a line, to let anything else but academics get in the way.