Man pretended to be Stanford student and lived in dorms for almost a year, university official confirms

A man pretended to be a student and lived in several Stanford University dorms for at least 10 months, a university official said Tuesday. The university's Department of Public Safety cited the man for violating the law the first time he was found living in a dorm in December 2021, but that didn't deter him, Stanford spokeswoman Dee Mostofi said in a statement.

Since then, campus police officers have obtained multiple stay-away letters, a prerequisite to citing someone for trespass on campus, but they weren't able to locate the man until last Thursday, when they gave him a stay-away letter and removed him from campus, Mostofi said.

She said the university has protocols and policies to prevent non-students from entering and living in the dorms, but that the man's "persistence and ability to ingratiate himself with our student community has made it clear that gaps exist in those protocols."

Some staff in individual dorms were notified of the man's presence, but "there were no broad communications about him to all Stanford residences," Mostofi said.

She said the university will review its procedures to prevent such an incident from happening again.

Mostofi didn't provide any other information or answer questions emailed to her.

Undated photo of Stanford University campus CBS San Francisco

The Stanford Daily reported Monday that the man, who the newspaper identified as Alabama native William Curry, had been living in a dorm's basement when police found him last week. He had lived in at least five dorms, it reported.

Sources told the Stanford Daily that Curry, who at one point introduced himself as a transfer student from Duke University, harassed multiple students and was repeatedly removed from campus.

Residents of Murray House told the newspaper that at one point, "he began to integrate himself into campus social life, creating a Tinder account and spending time with various groups of students."

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