Female faculty inspire leadership at UNL

When Marjorie Kostelnik and Charlyne Berens began college, neither thought they would lead one in the future.

"I thought I would work in the federal government after college, but when I was getting ready to graduate, there was a federal hiring freeze," Kostelnik said. "I had the chance to teach some college classes and really enjoyed them, so I started looking for jobs in higher education."

Kostelnik came to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from Michigan State University after a 22-year career teaching in early childhood education. She was hired in 2000 as dean of the College of Human Resources and Family Sciences. When the college merged with the Teacher's College in 2004, she became the dean of the new College of Education and Human Sciences.

Berens started her UNL career after running the Seward County Independent for 14 years as co-publisher with her husband. Her first position was the assistant to the dean in the ‘90s, which was a staff position. In 1995, she landed a full-time faculty position and has been teaching ever since. When the former dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications left UNL last spring, Berens was appointed interim dean. She will be taking on the task of interim only until the university finds a candidate for the permanent deanship.

"I didn't set out to be an administrator. It was not anything I ever thought I wanted to do," Berens said. "I love teaching, and there's some satisfaction in administration, helping people achieve their goals and helping plan the direction of the program. I'd rather be in the classroom. I really enjoy the students."

Both women have earned master's and doctorate degrees. Along their educational and career journeys, neither Kostelnik nor Berens faced impossible gender barriers.

"I came from a family that thought I could do anything I wanted," Kostelnik said. "So I never had a sense in elementary school, high school or even in college that there were things I couldn't do because I was a female. I just never had that."

In fact, Kostelnik's mother went back to college at the same time Kostelnik did.

"When my mom went to college, I had a role model of a woman who was interested in education," Kostelnik said. "She was actually a better student than I was – she got into Mortar Board, and I didn't. I was a little jealous."

Berens also said she was fortunate in her career to avoid major obstacles.

"I've been very lucky," she said. "By the time I started here in the late 1990s, there were more females on the faculty by far than when I was in college. I don't think anybody thought there would be a particular roadblock. There was nothing major where anyone stood in the way of what I wanted to do. Anything like that would have been really little things."

Both deans' colleges have high female enrollment. According to UNL's Institutional Research and Planning's 2009 Factbook, female students outnumber male students in journalism 522 to 362. For faculty, women barely top men with 34 females and 30 males teaching, according to IRP's 2008 data index.

The education college's female population is even higher. Male student enrollment lags behind female student enrollment 2,142 to 775. Last year, IRP recorded 123 women faculty members and only 90 males.

Even though major gender barriers have failed to keep Kostelnik and Berens from achieving leadership roles, both women have dealt with instances of sexism.

When Kostelnik first applied for colleges, she made a visit to a couple schools in Ohio, where she was told to rethink her career interests.