school network changes to ad-hoc

I have an interesting problem (i think it is at least!)
at my university, I connect to the wireless fine, but when I go outside the university border, I remain connected, but it changes to an adhoc, computer to computer network..once with a good wind, I was able to receive the actual network, and since they both were showing up in my wireless screen, I guess they are seperate...has anyone heard of something like this before? is there any way to access the internet through their adhoc, or change it into a regular network?

thanks