About the program

CAMBUS student employees with at least one year of service are eligible to apply for the academic scholarship. Recipients are selected by a committee based on their work record, contributions to the workplace, and short-form written answers about the impacts of CAMBUS as a service and as a student employment opportunity.

The CAMBUS scholarship program was established by Doug Couto, who graduated from UI Tippie College of Business in 1972, and is also a CAMBUS alum. While in the residence halls at Iowa, Couto and a few friends started a voluntary busing service from the west residence halls over to main campus. UI President Sandy Boyd heard of this project and officially funded it as a university program in 1972. After a student naming contest, the name “CAMBUS” was chosen for the system. Couto has worked in transportation since graduating from Iowa and has recently dedicated his philanthropy to establishing the CAMBUS Scholarship at the University of Iowa.