Matt Kiernan / The Recorder
Marking the end of a 42-year run at CCSU, Dr. Norton Mezvinsky delivered a farewell lecture and heartfelt goodbye last Monday.
An audience of fellow scholars and professors, students and friends surrounded the history professor as he told of his beginning at the university and some of his proudest achievements during his work at CCSU.
Mezvinsky, who will leave to direct the Institute for Middle East Studies at Georgetown University, looked back on his tenure and pupils happily.
“I like the students or at least most of them that I’ve had the privilege of teaching,” remarked during his speech.
Mezvinsky is an accomplished author and scholar who has focused his career on on the teachings and studies of the subjects of Judaism, American history and the Middle East. These, he said, are the most rewarding of subjects for himself and the topics he found to be interesting even from a young age.
The lecture was opened with an introduction by associate professor of history Dr. Matthew Warshauer who credited Mezvinsky with his own interest in history.
“If it wasn’t for Norton Mezvinsky, I probably wouldn’t have taken the path that lead me here today,” said Warshauer who attended CCSU for his bachelor’s degree and so happened to take a history class with Mezvinsky during his undergraduate studies.
At the goodbye ceremony Mezvinsky was awarded with the honor of being given his own eponymous scholarship, which will be offered to students studying abroad or working in Washington D.C.
Mezvinsky discussed his first teaching opportunities at CCSU. When Mezvinsky joined the faculty at CCSU in 1967, he was living in New York City and was quite happy with his living situations there.
He planned to spend his time teaching within the city at the City College of New York, but was later introduced to the CCSU campus. After being brought to CCSU and offered a job in teaching by university President Herbert Welte, Mezvinsky gave CCSU a chance.
Although he originally planned to live in New York City, commute to CCSU and later land a job teaching elsewhere, Mezvinsky was so thrilled with his job at CCSU that he decided to stay.
He said he knew that he didn’t have to worry about being academically stifled and had developed friendships with colleagues.
In recent years, Mezvinsky’s proudest achievement has been the formation of the Middle East lecture series that brings scholars the subject to CCSU to discuss the problems and issues with events occurring in the Middle East.
He hopes to continue the series for years to come and if asked is willing to help bring friends and scholars to campus to speak.
During his speech, Mezvinsky also looked to his past to recall events that occurred on campus and what was most memorable to him.
He remembered and spoke of his first year at Central where there was a debate on Vietnam and if R.O.T.C. should be supported on campus, which Mezvinsky spoke openly against.
He wishes CCSU to not become state-man controlled for Connecticut and wishes the university to have shared government within.
“We need to emphasize the value of having scholars on the faculty and scholarship,” said Mezvinsky.
He also suggested that the CSU system add faculty members to the Board of Trustees.
For people in positions of government power, he described a leader as being someone with integrity and being an educator. He said that humility is lacking in many of today’s current political leaders.
