Stanford Incident Unlikely Here, Officials Say

Campus officials say it is unlikely that an incident being investigated at Stanford University involving a young woman posing as a student could happen at UC Berkeley.

Azia Kim, who graduated last spring from Troy High School in Fullerton, Calif., told her friends at home that she was attending Stanford, according to UC Berkeley student Jeff Hsu, who graduated with Kim and will be a sophomore next year.

But last week The Stanford Daily reported that Kim was not a student at the school and had been climbing through windows to live in two residence halls since September.

Stanford officials are currently investigating the incident, according to university spokesperson Kate Chesley, who said the campus will be looking into what she called possible gaps in the school’s security systems.

“This is clearly anomalous,” Chesley said. “I think it’s fair to say that college campuses in general are so open, to varying degrees, that there’s certainly stories of people who are perhaps there inappropriately.”

Stanford officials may also be facing another imposter incident in the school’s physics department, according to media reports.

UC Berkeley officials said they could not recall an incident similar to Kim’s ruse ever happening here and said systems are designed so it likely could not be pulled off.

At UC Berkeley, the registration status of students living in the residence halls is checked daily and once it has lapsed residents are asked to leave within three days, said Michelle Kniffin, an assistant director of housing assignments in the Residential and Student Service Programs office.

Kniffin also pointed to security monitors who swipe the school ID cards of residents in the evenings as a barrier against imposters.

Chesley said that at Stanford a key or ID card is required to gain entry into the residence halls but she said there are no monitors who check identification.

“I personally find it very surprising that it could go on for so long,” said Monica Hastings-Smith, a senior administrative analyst in UC Berkeley’s Residential and Student Service Programs.

According to Hastings-Smith, aside from measures taken by campus officials, security comes down to students being aware of their surroundings.

“We rely on students’ awareness, it’s really up to them to make sure that people aren’t following them in the door,” she said.

Hsu, who said Kim likely faced a lot of pressure to attend a top-notch school, said he was surprised when he heard about the ruse and did not think it was likely that something similar could happen at UC Berkeley.

“The (resident assistants) are all pretty strict about things, they keep their eyes on everyone and they know everyone on their floors,” he said.

But Hsu also said he did not think it was outside the realm of possibility considering the pressure he said students from his high school faced to attend schools with good reputations.

“Berkeley is pretty prestigious too, so I mean if there was someone maybe in Azia’s ... shoes it could happen,” Hsu said.

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