Thomas Cox: Proudly serving Winona State University for 15 years

Erich Schweitzer, News Reporter

When there is something strange in your campus community, who are you going to call? Not the Ghostbusters, but you could call campus security officer Thomas Cox.

Cox has worked at Winona State University for the past fifteen years. Starting out in 2008 as a general maintenance worker, Cox would soon move on to event set up before transitioning to the university’s security department.

Cox’s current position entails many duties and responsibilities. As part of his job, Cox deals with building access authorization, scheduling the van drivers, staffing events and responding to any and all calls about complaints or things happening on campus.

When asked what his favorite moments of his job are, Cox responded by saying that it was the commencement ceremonies. These are, of course, the events held to commemorate students graduating from Winona State. It is an important time for any student, celebrating all the years of hard work they had to put in to make it to that point in their lives.

Cox said that “the best moment of my job is commencement; seeing the smiles on the faces of the students.”

In the many years that he has worked for the university, Cox has also made an impact on those around him. One of those people is Christopher Cichosz, the director of security, who has been at Winona State for six and a half years now.

Cichosz has worked with Cox before, but now works with him more regularly since they both work in the security department.

Speaking on the matter himself, Cichosz said that “I worked a little with Thomas when he worked in Facilities. I regularly work with Thomas now.”

From his perspective, Cox described his relationship with Cichosz as “good and respectful.”

Cichosz described working with Cox in a similar way, stating that working with Cox is “enjoyable and fun.”

When talking about what he thinks of Cox, Cichosz described him as “a joy to be around” and “a genuine and kind person.”

With this it is clear that Cox has had a positive impact on Cichosz in the time they have spent working together. It would be no surprise that Cox has similarily impacted others in the department and Campus Security as a whole.

“We are fortunate to have Thomas working with us at WSU,” Cichosz said.

After working at Winona State for so long, Cox has made a lot of memories. There is a lot to think about when reflecting on his lengthy career.

Overall, Cox stated that “my career here at WSU has been wonderful… it has ups and downs; I’ve met a lot of good friends.”

Working at the university for fifteen years, Cox has also seen many students from all different walks of life come through the doors of Winona State and then graduate soon after.

Cox said that he has met “a lot of excited, interesting students along the way,” and that “I’ve seen a lot of people come and go.”

Thomas Cox sums it all up by saying that his many years working at Winona State have been an “eye-opening experience.”