A new Cambus route helps West Side students get to and from campus.

By Hannah Adamson
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With the addition of a new dormitory on the West Side of campus, Cambus has welcomed an addition of its own.

The new West Dorm Shuttle, which will run during the fall and spring academic semesters, will take students specifically between the west dormitories and the east buildings near and around the Pentacrest.

The new shuttle service will run eight and a half hours a day, 42 hours a week — which will add an approximate 680 hours of additional service to students per year.

With around 500 more students living on the West Side of campus this semester, Cambus Director Brian McClatchey said he hopes the West Dorm Shuttle will address certain issues the freshman influx brings.

“It’s 15-minute rounds, so you get four additional trips per hour,” McClatchey said. “It’s a short, little route, but we hope it does a lot of work.”

At a cost of $24,000 per year, McClatchey hopes the service will pull its weight in the upcoming winter months.

On his first day driving for Cambus, UI sophomore Brett Pierson said the new bus route will help people on the West Side better plan their schedules.

“I think it really helps the kids on the West Side a lot,” especially freshmen, he said.

Two students riding the route for the first time, UI freshmen Guadalupe Munoz and Daisy Corona, supported the new route.

“I think it’s good they added a new route,” Munoz said, while Corona noted that the West Shuttle seemed to be less crowded than other routes.

The West Shuttle has been established as Cambus is experiencing a better student turnout in terms of hiring new drivers. The service faced a driver shortage last school year.

“We’re much better than last fall,” McClatchey said.

Although Cambus still needs around 10 to 15 more trained employees in order to be fully staffed this fall, McClatchey hopes the UI Job Fair will attract more students to drive for Cambus.

“The fall is really your best time as far as how many people you can hire,” McClatchey said.

He said Cambus is making efforts to attract more students, such as increasing the starting wage to $11.50, giving pay raises every six months, and other promotion opportunities.

In addition to the West Shuttle, other shuttle routes, such as the UI Research Park Shuttle route, will be changed; the Studio Arts Shuttle route — originally including service to Hawks Ridge — has been changed permanently.

McClatchey said the Research Park route will be changed for service to a new UI Research Park building in the future, and that one bus will be added to the line.

Although the Studio Arts route is not the same as it was two years ago, the route has been considered fully restored and will operate, McClatchey said, “until it goes away.”