The University of Iowa’s Cambus is bringing back an additional route to Mayflower Residence Hall this year because of an increase in residents living in the dorm.

The route, known as “Route 36” or “East Dorm Shuttle,” was last in use during the 2020-21 academic year, Cambus Operations Manager Mia Brunelli said.

Mayflower’s occupancy increased from 774 residents in fall 2021 to 888 residents this fall, according to an email sent to The Daily Iowan from UI Housing and Dining.

During that time, the route was called “Mayflower Shuttle,” but Cambus decided to change the name to “East Dorm Shuttle” this year to reduce confusion on where the route goes, Brunelli said.

“We talked about some different ideas and felt that ‘East Dorm Shuttle’ would make a lot more sense to students to describe how that route is meant to be used,” Brunelli said. “It also does have some impact helping out with the demand from the Burge and Currier area.”

Brunelli said Cambus evaluates where additional service may or may not be needed each school year, and then decides which routes will be used. Some routes will always run, like the “Red,” “Blue,” and “Interdorm” routes, but some routes may see changes on a year-to-year basis, she said.

“For some things that are really specific, like Mayflower, we have an idea of what to expect based on previous years,” Brunelli said. “But if we find out information that kind of really changes it, like we are doubling the number of people living at Mayflower, we kind of reassess.”

UI first year student Medha Saggurti said she lives in Mayflower and appreciates the extra route because buses have been packed full of students nearly every day.

“It’s really nice they do have that additional bus because I see that the bus is really packed whenever it’s coming to Mayflower,” Saggurti said.

Isabel Christensen, another first-year student who lives in Mayflower, said she has also seen how full the buses get, which has caused some issues in her commutes to class.

“On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have a 9:30 a.m. class —I think a lot of people do — and I have to get down there super early and stand in line because I get worried that the bus will be [at] 100 percent capacity, and I won’t be able to get on it because that’s happened,” Christensen said.

With this school year potentially being the last year in which Mayflower is a student residence hall, Brunelli said future route service to the Mayflower area is somewhat up in the air.

“It’s something we’re just not sure about. It just kind of depends on how it goes,” Brunelli said. “There’s just so many factors, and we’ll try to respond in the way that makes sense. We are primarily an on-campus service, so that’s where we focus our efforts.”