Increasingly erratic behavior gives away impostor student using campus facilities

A woman posed as a scholar at UCLA for nearly four months over the summer before being discovered and asked to leave campus, in the second such incident in the past year.

Elizabeth Okazaki was able to receive affiliate status with the philosophy department, allowing her to obtain a BruinCard.

University staff and faculty said Okazaki used the card to access libraries, where she would often spend up to eight hours a day, and recreational facilities, where she would store some of her possessions.

Affiliate status can be granted with department approval to visiting guests who are not students, staff or faculty but who need a BruinCard for access to services.

Donald Martin, chair of the philosophy department, said via e-mail that Okazaki told faculty members at the beginning of the summer that she was working on a project on the philosophy of music and wanted a library card to continue her research.

Martin said Okazaki’s project seemed “genuine” and faculty members approved her for affiliate status with the department, allowing her to access university libraries.

But other faculty and staff said they became suspicious of Okazaki after she began exhibiting strange behavior.

Edward Blancarte, a student affairs officer in the music and ethnomusicology departments, said Okazaki started bringing her cat, which was ill, to campus. At one point, Okazaki attempted to enlist staff members’ help in administering medication to the cat, Blancarte said. He added that the cat eventually died in a classroom.

“She seemed out of it but not completely abnormal,” he said. “She was displaying loopy behavior, but I’ve seen far loopier behavior.”

Bob Harding, a manager for the Dodd Humanities Group, said Okazaki initially appeared to be a normal student. It was not until she was discovered to have apparently spent a night in a classroom that staff and faculty became suspicious and she was asked to leave in September.

“Once we determined she wasn’t a currently enrolled student … she was asked to leave,” Harding said. “I’ve never encountered anyone with the ability to so perfectly blend in.”

This was not the first time Okazaki had pretended to be a university student. According to the Stanford Daily, Okazaki posed as a physics graduate student at Stanford University from 2003 until May 2007, attending seminars and using the school’s recreational facilities.

Blancarte said after reading an article in the Stanford Daily about Okazaki, he began making connections to the woman he had seen on UCLA’s campus.

“It was kind of accidental that I even read the article,” he said, adding that he contacted staff members at the Stanford Daily to get additional information about Okazaki.

He followed up with the philosophy and music departments, alerted the BruinCard office, and also spoke with Okazaki’s Brentwood landlady.

Martin said the philosophy department revoked Okazaki’s affiliate status and asked the BruinCard office to invalidate her BruinCard late in the summer.

“We got convincing evidence that she had been misusing the BruinCard,” he said, though he declined to elaborate on the specifics of that misuse.

But Okazaki continued to use UCLA facilities after her affiliate status was revoked, including the gym and libraries, until library personnel eventually called university police and asked her to leave on Sept. 12.

Blancarte said he has not heard from Okazaki since then, but she does not appear to have returned a number of library items she had checked out before being removed from campus.

He added that he does not fault anyone in particular for the Okazaki situation.

“I don’t know how this could have been prevented,” he said. “I guess she kind of exploits this aspect of college life, this anything-goes attitude.”

Harding suggested individuals might need to become more vigilant to prevent similar problems in the future.

“When you’re dealing with someone who appears to know the campus and have legitimate access, there’s a natural tendency … to be helpful with a reasonable request,” he said, adding that consistently checking paperwork might be helpful.

Over the past year, a number of similar incidents at several schools, including UCLA, have drawn national attention.

Earlier this year, another woman at Stanford was discovered posing as a student. Azia Kim lived in a dorm and attended classes for nearly a year before being asked to leave the school.

And last year, a man at UCLA who had been pretending to be a student was arrested for a third time. Sheldon Ross posed as a graduate student and lived in the Student Media office for a time.

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