Five Decades (plus) of Dedication

Retiring Jan Gostonczik reflects on a lifetime of helping students and shaping Minnesota State Mankato’s history.

By Joe Tougas ’86

Kids have all sorts of props when they role-play—wands, swords, light sabers…tools as endless as their own imaginations.

In her childhood, Jan Gostonczik’s main prop was a desk. And her superpower was helping people.

“Growing up, I wanted to be many things,” she said. “But I always went back to enjoying office work.” As a farm kid near Lake Washington, she loved playing school, no doubt emulating her schoolteacher mom. “Or pretending customers would come in and I’d be helping them.”

That innate draw to schools, office work and helping people helps explain her decision to work for 56 years as an administrative assistant at Minnesota State Mankato. Gostonczik’s voice trembles a bit when asked what the University has meant to her now that she’s all grown up and retiring.

In a way, Gostonczik’s time spent at MSU answers the question. She said she’s loved being part of the University and its growth to the regional force it is today, along the way adapting to everything from 1970s-era political upheaval over Vietnam to a pandemic some 50 years later. 

She’s worked through six presidents, four interim presidents, three name changes, the addition of doctoral programs and the exciting growth in international student population.

Through it all, she’s been proud to help the students. 

“I always try to be patient and understanding of students and listen,” she said on one of her last days on campus as administrative assistant in the special education department. 

Gostonczik, the youngest of five children,  attended school in St. Peter. She mastered typing at an early age, as well as shorthand skills; those proved beneficial when, after a year at Mankato Commercial College, she took a secretarial job for the University’s math department in October of 1969.

“Students would come in and I would help them either go to the correct faculty member or just try to answer the questions,” she said. “I thought it was landing a great job. And I thought I could see myself maybe going into different positions. I felt it was a very solid place to work.” She switched areas in 1973, moving from math in the newly constructed Trafton Hall to special education in Armstrong.

As the years went by, her appreciation for her role as employee, student (she’d taken courses in English and history) and observer only increased.

In the early 1970s, protests over the Vietnam War and related turmoil turned an already politically active campus into one that saw marches through town, a highway blocked by protesters and, at one point, the administration building occupied by student activists.

“I just thought it was so amazing,” she said, “because I was so young and hadn't seen any of this stuff. It made such a big impression on me. And when they would have the rallies and the protests, I remember the whole mall area outside being packed with students [listening to] speakers. I mean, this would happen every day.

“I thought, ‘Here I am right in the midst of all this happening. And it was all in the news and you'd have people asking you, well, you work at MSU, so how is it all going up there with that?’”
 
The biggest challenge to her time at the University was when the campus went dark during COVID, and students and faculty worked remotely. The effects can still be felt, she said, with more students continuing to learn remotely.

The 56 years have flown by, she said, and several of the colleagues who got to know her during that more than five-decade flight will gather Nov. 6 to celebrate on campus. 

Special education professor Karen Eastman remembers Gostonczik helping her during her first days on the job some 20 years ago. Eastman had been hired just a few weeks before school started and had to make a quick move to Mankato from New York.

“It was crazy. She had to help me on day one to figure out a bunch of stuff,” Eastman said. “From the beginning, she’s always answered every single question I've ever asked, which is a lot, and she's helped me with everything.”

The two became friends and colleagues over time, with Eastman marveling at Gostonczik’s encyclopedic knowledge of MSU and its workings.

“She just knows everything,” Eastman said. “She's watched it all develop and change over time, and can give you the background and the history and the reason for it, and that's always important to me.” 

Starting at MSU at a time when computers were far from the mainstream, Gostonczik adapted every step of the way as the digital age emerged. Without, Eastman noted, any complaining.

“She just learns the next thing," Eastman said. "She works so hard, always trying to get everything done for faculty and making it so much easier for us.”

Aaron Deris, chair of the special education department, is seeking emerita status for Gostonczik, noting her “unwavering dedication, professionalism and consistent record of excellence that make her most deserving” of the recognition.

“She has provided support and stability across generations of faculty, students and administrators,” Deris said. “Her legacy of dedication, excellence and institutional loyalty will continue to inspire the entire university community.”

Gostonczik aims to do some traveling in retirement, and will watch with great interest how the University continues to grow.

“I get emotional,” she said. “But it's been really good for me. I feel honored to have been here, part of the history here, and see all the changes.” 

Throughout her time at MSU, Gostonczik said, she’s never had the urge to leave and work elsewhere.

“Not really,” she said. “Once in a while I’d think of people, friends that were out in the business area, they might get paid more. So I did think about it, but I just thought, ‘Well, this is a good place to be.’ 

“I am just so dedicated to MSU.”