Star of CCSU: James J. Maloney
As students stand in front of Maloney Hall, they often do not consider how the building got its name. James Maloney was a Hollywood actor that used to teach at CCSU. He starred in shows like “The Twilight Zone” and “Tales of Tomorrow.” He was significant for his many years of teaching at CCSU and his contributions to the arts. He was also a native to New Britain, CT. He participated in all kinds of town events such as giving program readings to juniors and seniors in New Britain High School and participating in the Women’s Club events in the neighboring town of Newington, as recorded within the Hartford Courant. He was truly an important person in his community.
The building dedicated to Maloney is located on the corner of Stanley and Wells Street, right across from the Welte garage building. It is the center of Fine Arts and hosts a number of different classes as well as artistic events throughout the year. The original building was built in 1921 for student teaching labs, but it was originally built in the same style as Davidson and Marcus White. However, it was abandoned for quite some time until it was restored into an Arts and Theatre building. It now has a modern art kind of structure covering the original brick which is still shown around the frame of the doors. The building was dedicated March 14, 1990, and memorialized after Maloney, who died in 1978.
During this time the United States and many other countries were welcoming women to the workforce where they were breaking barriers never seen before, and the Reagan administration was dealing with the AIDS epidemic as well as carrying on the war on drugs started by Nixon. All these events happening did not stop the school from paying attention to the education of their students, which included fixing this building. From an analytic view, it is not relative to the world events why this building was dedicated at this time. However, it was time for the building to have a new name, and having it named after someone who contributed so greatly to the area of Greater Hartford made the most sense.
Although it is honorable to have a building named after you, CCSU could do better at educating their students about who this person was. After a closer look at James Maloney, it is clear that he loved acting and the arts so much that he was willing to postpone retirement to continue teaching. Having the experience, he had must have shaped many students’ lives for this whole building to be dedicated to him. Additionally, it is obvious his efforts helped push those who wanted to act, to act because if the teaching was not successful, the building would be dedicated to someone else or simply called the Arts Building.
I think the next person we should name a building after is President Toro. I think that she represents a whole new generation of educators. First, she is the first female to be in her position. Secondly, she is the first Latinx-American to be in her position as well. These are huge breakthroughs as we remember how hard it used to be for women to join the workforce in the beginning let alone minority women.
