■Hampshire County was pretty well represented in the BAA Marathon yesterday with Tom Derderian, a UMass senior and winner of the Northampton Jaycees road race in March, coming in 26th in the field of more than 1,000. Derderian, a bearded, long-haired distance runner for the UMass track team, ran almost neck and neck with another former UMass runner, Ron Wayne.
■The first session of the University of Massachusetts “Marathon,” a four-day series of workshops designed to provide both blacks and whites an opportunity to examine issues of racism, was canceled today in response to a demand by minority students to close down the program. A group of protesters, calling themselves “The Third World Alliance,” charged that the Marathon was “a smoke screen and another attempt to package, commercialize, and capitalize on the minority experience.”
■Over 200 people marched through a rainy downtown last night to protest violence against women. The purpose of the annual “Stop the Clock” rally, according to organizer Cristy Robtoy, was “to raise consciousness to the community about violence against women, and to empower the women that are here and already doing the work.”
■The alternative rock concert first slated for the Northampton Airport could be moved across the street to the Three County Fairgrounds, according to the president of the fairgrounds. The possible switch in venue comes after the City Council two weeks ago closely questioned the concert promotor, John Peters of Amherst, about neighborhood concerns of parking, amplified obscenities and other noise.
■A new Easthampton farmers market, set to begin in June, is joining the many markets popping up around the Pioneer Valley in response to a growing demand for local produce. Easthampton’s Agricultural Commission has been organizing the new market for about a year. The market will be held at 50 Payson Ave.
■Nearly 1,000 college-age partyers took over the beach at Puffer’s Pond on Monday afternoon and left it lettered with empty beer cans and bottles, food containers and towels. “It’s disgusting,” said Richard McGinn of Cottage Street, who passed the site shortly after activities on the south beach ceased about 5 p.m. “It looks like a frat party that wasn’t picked up.”