It's the kind of story that sounds more like fiction than fact:

For eight months, an 18-year-old student slept, took classes and ate among some 17,000 students for nearly eight months. Only she wasn't a student.

And yet that's exactly what happened at Stanford University last week, when the pressure from her parents to succeed drove the woman to avail herself of campus services even though she wasn't a student,  according to the college's newspaper.

From telling repeated lies to students to hacking into a student's email account,  the measures taken by the woman to remain on campus appear extreme, and in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, one naturally wonders if this person could have been a danger to others on campus.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the story is the fact that because she didn't have a college ID card, the woman had to climb in a window (presumably for months) to get into the dorm room she was staying in. And yet, no suspicions were aroused. It was only when a resident assistant was making a yearbook of students on the floor that officials noticed anything amiss.

As our recent FacilitiesNet report on campus security noted, maintaining security on campus is significant challenge. While technology can play a role, communication is vitally important, experts said. Clearly this incident serves as a reminder for campus officials to stress vigilance — not only among security staff, but residence life staff and students as well.