A Look Back: Nov. 8

50 Years Ago

■Area schools, colleges and industries reported this morning that they intend to comply immediately with President Nixon’s request for energy conservation. Most public buildings and factories lowered their temperatures to 70 degrees today, while the University of Massachusetts lowered its heat to a range of 65 to 68 degrees.

■In an emergency joint meeting of the City Council and School Committee yesterday, Mrs. Deborah M. Weeks, who was elected to the school committee Tuesday, was appointed to fill the Ward 7 seat vacated by Bernard V. Tobin. The appointment takes effect immediately. Mrs. Weeks officially takes office in January.

25 Years Ago

■The editorial department of FamilyPC, a national publication launched from Northampton in 1994, will be relocated from offices in the Roundhouse to Manhattan in January, the magazine’s staff was told Thursday. The move is in part a move by its publisher to save money, an official said, at a time when its stock value has plummeted.

■The former interim director of the Northampton Center for the Arts has taken a position as arts coordinator at Smith College. Janna Goodwin, who helped steer the Center for the Arts through ongoing financial crises during eight months that ended in April, began working for Smith in September.

10 Years Ago

■Casino supporters in the state were dealt twin setbacks on Tuesday as voters in East Boston rejected a proposal by the Suffolk Downs racetrack and voters in Palmer narrowly defeated a bid by Mohegan Sun to build a resort casino in the western Massachusetts town.

■Northampton is in search of an interim superintendent after Regina Hurley Nash informed the school board Friday that she intends to leave the post as of Jan. 1. Nash, 68, a retired head of the Frontier Regional and Union 38 school districts, was hired as interim superintendent for Northampton in July while a search was conducted for a permanent city schools chief.