A Look Back, Nov. 21

50 Years Ago

■A University of Massachusetts sophomore enters her eighth day of fasting today, her way of dramatizing that “eating less is something we as individuals can do” to ease the world famine. Mary Colwell, a 23-year-old UMass pre-nursing student, plans to fast until the day before Thanksgiving.

■Parents got the inside story of the learning experience at Northampton High School last night when they visited classrooms their sons and daughters have become familiar with over the past year. Some had a look at sophisticated language equipment, such as tape recorders, and saw changes that had taken place since their own student days.

25 Years Ago

■Area parents and educators worried about new standardized tests will have a chance to discuss their concerns next month at Smith College. A meeting Dec. 6 has been scheduled for the purpose of discussing how the two-year-old Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests are influencing what is taught in class and how that is affecting students.

■School department’s secretaries turned out in force Thursday to tell the School Committee they deserve higher salaries. Becky Makofsky, the school district’s transportation supervisor and steward of the Northampton Public School Secretaries Union, said the workers feel left behind by a recent citywide reclassification of municipal employees.

10 Years Ago

■The city of Northampton has stepped in to take over the popular holiday lights program, ending concerns that they would not be lit downtown after a judge last week ordered the Northampton Business Improvement District to shut down. Mayor David J. Narkewicz announced Thursday that the city has hired the same Easthampton company that the BID used to maintain the lights.

■Longtime Amherst College psychology professor Rose Olver, who helped usher in an era of equality with the hiring of female faculty and the enrollment of female students, died at the Hospice of the Fisher Home Wednesday after a four-year battle with ovarian cancer. Olver, 77, the first tenure-track female faculty member when she was hired in 1962, was the wife of retired U.S. Congressman John W. Olver.