MANKATO — What started as a suggestion from her sister-in-law after her graduation from Mankato Commercial College turned into a 56-year career at Minnesota State University for Jan Gostonczik.
She retires Dec. 31 after about 53 of those years as administrative assistant for the special education program in the College of Education.
During her years as a Maverick, she has seen the valley and highland campuses merged, she has gone from typing forms on the typewriter and sending them in to filling them out online, and she has seen several university presidents come and go. James Nickerson was president when she started.
It all began when she set about putting her one-year secretarial degree to work.
“My sister-in-law started working over in the student union for the director over there,” Gostonczik said this week, “and she said to me, ‘Why don’t you look at MSU to see if you could find a job there? It would be a good job and good benefits and everything.’”
She applied for a job and got it.
It was in the math department, whose offices were in Nelson Hall, now the home to the art department. She was there until Trafton Science Center was built. When the math and physics departments merged, she lost her position to an employee with more seniority and made the move to special education.
“I just thought it was a great place to work. And I really enjoyed helping students, getting to know them and, of course, faculty and staff, too,” she said. “After a little while it becomes home to you — you just feel comfortable being here.”
Retired dean Jean Haar said Gostonczik always did what she could to make students and staff feel welcomed and supported, providing advice based on institutional knowledge and expertise gained through her years at the university.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the many conversations we had over the years,” Haar said. “Jan always had a welcoming, warm smile and it was easy to see she loved what she was doing.”
Christina Hinz serves as communication and events coordinator for the College of Education. She has seen Gostonczik’s work with students firsthand.
“The students connect with her, and they know that they’ll be well cared for with Jan,” Hinz said. She also noted the many changes that have occurred on campus and in the office, everything from using shorthand and typing up math tests to watching students get involved in an ever-changing society, like during the Vietnam War.
“The whole (campus) mall would be just packed with students,” Gostonczik said. “And that was just amazing to me to see that and have everybody be so actively involved.” The time included not only rallies and speakers, but student protests on the bridge downtown and bomb threats called in to buildings.
“It kind of made me feel anxious because you didn’t know for sure what was going to happen. But, luckily, nothing really bad happened.”
She regrets having less contact with students, with many classes offered online and communications that once were held face to face being replaced with more phone calls and emails.
“I always enjoyed meeting them and getting to know them and helping them, and I always loved working with my work-study students and getting to know them.”
She has kept in touch with some students, sometimes seeing them again when they return to campus with their kids who are starting at MSU. Hinz mentioned that Gostonczik has offered to keep an eye on the second-generation students for their parents.
“It’s kind of really interesting, kind of full circle.”
Although she said she will miss the people, she’s also looking forward to the freedom that comes with not having to report to work every day. Raised on a farm near Lake Washington and attending school in St. Peter, she has family she hopes to visit. And she may finally make that trip to Italy.
In the meantime, she’s taking the time to consider the difference she has made over more than a half century on the job.
“We need such good special ed teachers and I felt, in a way, I was helping the special needs students in the schools. So I just felt connection with that,” she said. “I was happy I was in that area because there’s such a need, and we always had a lot of students in the program.”
Through it all, she wants to keep connected with her lifelong employer.
“I hope to stay in touch with Christina, and there’s been a lot of retirees that I want to connect with. To keep in touch with them, go out to lunch with some of them, too. Yeah, I’m really dedicated to MSU.”