More than security: William Linz’s commitment to the USF community

Ever since he started as a student at the University of St.Francis in 2004, William Linz, now Director of Safety and Security, has been a part of the school community. 

“I actually went to school here as a student, from 2004 to 2009”, said Linz. “I started in 2004 as a student worker here in a department…Eventually worked my way to full-time and then up to now the Director of Safety and Security here.”

Originally a secondary education major, Linz did not plan to permanently go into security. His rise through the ranks of the security office and through enjoyment of his on-campus job changed that. 

“I'm ready to graduate, so I graduated with a history degree. I was looking to go into law enforcement. But I started working here, enjoyed working here, still enjoy working here, and stayed,” said Linz. 

It started off just as a part time job after graduation as Linz looked into jobs in the education field and started testing for different police departments. As he became more involved and connected on campus through the job, the choice to stay was easy. A particular highlight for Linz is seeing students grow from their first year to graduation. 

“The more I got involved here as an officer, helping the students and even the employees making this campus safe, is what drove me”, said Linz. “
Yeah, I love seeing dudes come in, whether it's their freshman year, or they're transfer year, and watch them stay, and then graduate.”

A small but special part of the job for Linz is something that may be unexpected: helping alumni who met their loved one at USF propose. 

“We get to see (students come back) because we're here 24-7. We've had alumni come back where they asked their spouse to marry them”, said Linz. “That's kind of the small thing that our department gets to deal with. … So we try to help accommodate that stuff. 
It's stuff like that keeps us pushing.”

The day to day work of Linz involves backing up his officers in a variety of ways, from helping with phone calls, unlocking areas, and picking up stuff around campus. It also involves a lot of administrative work, particularly meetings with outside departments. 

“A lot of people don't know about Will County Emergency Management, and we're a part of that. They have what they call a campus preparedness task force, and that's where we meet with other public safety chiefs within Will County”, said Linz. 

The committee is a group of university and college security departments from all over the county. 

“We kind of plan how we can all keep our camps safe. We back each other up, even though we are technically competitors, you know, we're all universities or colleges competing for student enrollment”, said Linz. “It’s just different things about resources that are accessible to our campus.” 

Looking at the overall job, Linz’s favorite part is the service aspect as it is a value he deeply believes in. 

“My favorite part of the job is when we get called to maybe a student that might be in a crisis and actually helping them”, said Linz. “I'm a strong believer in service. 
I try to teach my sons that.”

With service in mind, Linz wants students to know what USF’s security and safety can do for them. 

“I kind of get the feeling that students may be afraid to come talk to us because we may represent and look like law enforcement. 
Which, in a sense, we are public safety here, but we're here for the students”, said Linz. 

There are a wide variety of things that the safety and security department can help students out with. 

“We escort people to and from their cars, assisting with jumpstarting cars,… if students lock their keys in their car, we can assist them with that”, said Linz. “Unlocking, locking classrooms, we assist the RAs with helping open up dorm rooms and we also help student interns here.”

From student work to director, Linz’s value of service is clear due to his commitment to USF.