Purdue University Temporary Housing Under Scrutiny After Photos Go Viral
Students living in Purdue University's temporary housing have been complaining that the situation is not what they paid for, and after photos of the dorm took off on social media, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security began investigating the situation, BuzzFeed News reports.
Photos posted to Instagram by the student paper The Purdue Exponent show a large room without windows, with desks, beds, and dressers sectioned off by furniture. The most crowded dorms with this design reportedly house up to eight to 10 people, according to the Exponent. The temporary dorms were created to house admitted students the school didn't initially have enough room for, according to BuzzFeed. The Journal & Courier reported last week that students were living in makeshift rooms in their dorm lounges. Others' rooms were built inside residence halls' loading docks, according to the Exponent
Beth McCuskey, vice provost for student life at the university, told BuzzFeed that most of the rooms have windows and locks and are approved by the fire department. These spaces cost the "absolute lowest rate" of $1,200 a semester and are meant to be used only until better housing opens up, with those in shared spaces given first priority for moving out. Mike Shettle, administration director for Purdue University Residences, told the Journal & Courier that there are fewer students in temporary housing than last year, and they should be moved by mid September, when they know which students assigned to regular dorms have canceled. Students usually get to move out of the eight-to-10-person spaces within a few weeks, McCuskey told *Buzzfeed *. But many people are upset that students are put there in the first place.
"It irks us. We’re paying to be here," one of the students assigned to the housing told BuzzFeed News. "Not everyone is living the same. At the end of the day, we’re not getting what we paid for. It’s a little unjust. ... If you’re going to admit as many kids, you got to build more dorms, or not have more upperclassmen staying in dorms."
"I’m right next to the elevator, and I think they took a closet and kind of turned it into a temporary dorm room," another student told the Exponent. "It kinda looks like that inside."
Purdue alum Danielle Render shared photos on Twitter, saying the space reminded her of a jail or halfway house. She told BuzzFeed that housing at Purdue has been an "increasing issue," adding, "Universities all over are placing students in situations which seem to be based on greed over the student’s experience." Five times more students than usual have signed up for the school's on-campus housing, McCuskey told BuzzFeed.
According to the Journal & Courier, at the beginning of August Purdue planned to negotiate an agreement that would result in two new dorms with space for over 1,000 students to be built by fall 2020.
A government representative told BuzzFeed that the Indiana Department of Homeland Security "will continue to look into this and work with Purdue University to ensure that all safety measures are being followed."
Purdue doesn't seem to be the only school having housing issues. UC Santa Cruz's Executive Director of Housing Services recently emailed the school's faculty and staff asking them to rent out their rooms to students to rectify for a housing shortage, according to a screenshot shared on Twitter.
When reached for comment, a representative from Purdue told Teen Vogue that the dorms are up to code and that the school has not received complaints. has reached out to Purdue for comment. "The local DHS inspector, whom Purdue has worked with for many years, did a walk-through of several of the temporary housing spaces after getting contacted by an online media outlet. The inspector found what we knew all along—the units were all up to code. University Residences has received no formal complaints from students in these units and in fact have one group of ten that has had petitioned the university to stay in their temporary space for the entire school year," Tim Doty, director of public information and issues management said in an email.
"About 120 students were placed in temporary spaces this fall, a number which is lower than some of our Big Ten counterparts. More than half of the students initially housed in the temporary spaces have already been moved out with the remainder expected to move by mid-October at the latest, most likely it will be much sooner."
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