He Lived in Multiple Dorms at Stanford, Wasn't a Student

Squatter William Curry of Alabama was removed from California university's campus
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 2, 2022 1:03 PM CDT
Stanford Squatter Booted After a Year on Campus
Crothers Hall, on the Stanford campus.   (Wikimedia Commons)

If students living in the dorms at Stanford wondered why they never saw William Curry go to any of his premed classes, they now have an answer: He wasn't actually a student there. In what SFist describes as "a pretty odd story that has the makings of a streaming series," the "pretend student" from Alabama was removed from campus on Thursday and told to stay away from the school after he was accused of swiping a TV from the basement of the Crothers residence hall, where he'd been staying for a few weeks, reports the Stanford Daily student newspaper. Fellow (actual) students tell the paper that Curry, an Alabama native who school administrators say graduated from Vestavia Hills High School in 2021, had been a fixture on campus since fall of last year, with stays in at least five other dorms.

In that period, Curry was accused of breaking into other students' dorm rooms and was found to have "harassed multiple students," sources tell the Daily. He'd apparently introduced himself to some students as a transfer from Duke, and to others as a member of the school's track team who'd been recruited during his junior year of high school, per the New York Post. The Daily notes that a fellow student says she dated Curry, who'd told her he was a Coca-Cola scholar, from January until the end of the school year, and that after they'd split, he stalked and harassed her. The student paper notes that, due to poor communication from school officials to dorm RAs and other students about what was going on, Curry would get booted from one dorm, only to sneak back into another one.

Stanford spokesperson Dee Mostofi acknowledges to the Statesman Journal that while some staffers were made aware of Curry's presence, "there were no broad communications about him to all Stanford residences." She notes the university first got wind of Curry's sneaky stay in December and kept citing him for it with "stay-away" letters, which apparently didn't do any good. "The unique aspects of Mr. Curry's persistence and ability to integrate himself with our student community has made it clear that gaps exist in [our security] protocols," Mostofi notes in a statement, adding that the school is currently reviewing those protocols. (Read much more on Curry's campus stay here.)

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