Bryan Mulrooney recognized by the University of Iowa during celebration of National Student Employee Week

SUBMITTED PHOTO The Gazette
Bryan Mulrooney of Pecatonica, Ill., was recognized along with seven other student employees and seven student employee supervisors during the 2019-20 National Student Employment Week, April 13-17.

Step onto a Cambus on any given Wednesday, and the driver is likely wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It’s a bright spot on often glum days as riders and drivers navigate the COVID-19 quarantine. UI student Bryan Mulrooney credits his closet for the idea.

Mulrooney’s knack for team-building, his fun-loving disposition, and his vast collection of Hawaiian shirts gelled into “Aloha-Shirt Wednesdays” during the summer of 2018.

Mulrooney noticed the Cambus crew typically gathered after work on Wednesdays, so he began convincing others in the department to join him in wearing Hawaiian shirts midweek. The tradition grew over time, and now Cambus orders branded Hawaiian shirts in Hawkeye colors for its drivers to wear.

“Cambus has a well-established workplace culture, but it is up to the supervisors and support team maintain this culture as time goes on,” Mulrooney says.

Each year, about 7,000 students are employed through Iowa’s student hourly and work-study employment programs. Bryan Mulrooney of Pecatonica, Ill., was recognized along with seven other student employees and seven student employee supervisors during the 2019-20 National Student Employment Week, April 13-17.

Mulrooney has accepted that challenge in a significant way, says Mia Brunelli, Cambus operations manager. In his role as Cambus dispatching and bionic supervisor, Mulrooney selects, trains, and supervises 10 student dispatchers; indirectly supervises 90 fixed-route student drivers; and oversees the operation of the paratransit Bionic Bus service and its 75 drivers.

This includes training drivers, creating rider schedules, and handling rider concerns. The paratransit service provides more than 600 rides per month to UI students, staff, and faculty with temporary or permanent disabilities.

In recognition of his hard work and contributions, Mulrooney was named Iowa’s student employee of the year for 2019-20.

“Bryan’s positive impact on Cambus operations, workplace culture, and employee morale is a product of his competence, leadership style, caring, and sense of humor,” says Brunelli.

A native of Winnebago, Illinois, Mulrooney is pursuing a double major (music education and tuba performance and pedagogy) and plans to graduate in spring 2021. He began driving for Cambus in 2016, his first year at Iowa.

“I was all in on wanting to become a high school band director. The biggest draw is that I would have the potential to make a positive impact on a lot of lives. Once I started moving up at Cambus, I realized I have an additional passion in public transit, and I was already having a positive impact on the lives of employees and members of the community,” Mulrooney says. “Whenever I see a Bionic Bus driving down the street, I get to take pride in knowing that I trained the driver operating the bus, I hired the dispatcher who clocked them in that morning, and I made the schedule for them to give that ride.”

Last fall, Cambus replaced its paratransit pen-and-paper scheduling with a digital software system.

“Implementing this software would be a large undertaking for any transit agency, much less a system managed by a part-time student employee. Bryan took the lead on implementing this software, including developing training for dispatchers and drivers.

“Bryan also transferred all rider data, including 150-plus weekly rides, to the new software. He accomplished full implementation of this software within the fall semester while also being a full-time student and the sousaphone section leader in the Hawkeye Marching Band. It’s among the most impressive projects I’ve seen a student employee take on and accomplish in such a timeframe,” Brunelli says.

Mulrooney’s strong work ethic has enabled him to broaden his positive impact on the campus community.

“Through data analysis using the new software system, Bryan has been able to identify efficiencies and continues to develop improvements with an effort to provide the best service we can for the Cambus Bionic riders, many of whom depend on the service for getting to work, school, appointments, shopping, and more,” Brunelli says.

Mulrooney regularly tackles extra projects without being asked, such as rewriting the 124-page, dispatch reference manual, which had been outdated for years. It took him nearly a calendar year to complete.

Brunelli says the updated manual has enabled dispatch teams to respond more effectively and consistently to service issues and questions. He also solved staffing issues by looking at historical data to identify trends.

“What I figured out is that there are never enough Bionic-trained drivers. Cambus has a high turnover rate since we are all students. So it is extremely important to me to hold Bionic trainings as often as possible, as long as there are applicants,” Mulrooney says.

As a result, the Bionic department is among the best-staffed it has ever been, with new hires learning from senior workers before they leave.

“Bryan is a recognized leader in the organization, highly collaborative, and friendly, which makes him trusted and well-respected,” Brunelli says.

He has found connections between his music-school education and work at Cambus.

“One of the most important applications I’ve learned from music education that can be transferred into the workplace is establishing and maintaining a culture. A classroom or workplace culture is arguably the most important part of the setting,” Mulrooney says.

His newfound interest in public transportation and its community impact has Mulrooney considering attending graduate school for urban and regional planning. However, he says he may pursue a job in transportation operations if he finds the right opportunity.