Earlier this week, Purdue Exponent , a student-run paper at Purdue University, shared photos of a "makeshift" dorm on campus that's elicited strong reactions and concerns online.

The photos showed a large officelike space divvied up by standard dorm room furniture. Each segmented space has a desk, bed, and dresser. This room is not currently in use, but ones like it typically house 8 to 10 students.

The university creates new dorm spaces, known as "temporary" or "auxiliary housing," when there's an excess of admitted applicants. This year, Purdue saw about five times more students than anticipated, Beth McCuskey, the vice provost for student life at the university, told BuzzFeed News.

"Every year we arrange for temporary spaces and typically have 100 spaces that are used," McCuskey said.

She explained that there is high demand to live on campus, but every year they see a handful of students who "will say they’re coming to Purdue and simply don’t show up."

To deal with high and fluctuating volumes of applicants who want to live on campus, the university offers these temporary living spaces until they are reassigned more official housing that opens up.

Students in larger shared spaces will have first priority to move out.

McCuskey said those in the 8- to 10-person temporary dorms are reassigned "within the first few weeks of class." Others who have fewer roommates may live in theirs through most of the semester. All students are free to move into off-campus apartments and complexes whenever they wish, she said.

This year, however, Purdue saw about 500 more admitted students than they were anticipating. "Demand for Purdue this year exceeded what our typical yield projections are," said McCuskey.

The school clarified that the specific makeshift dorm shared by Purdue Exponent is not currently in use, but confirmed that there are others like it that are currently housing students.