■The University of Massachusetts board of trustees has named geology professor R. W. Bromery vice chancellor for student affairs at the Amherst campus. Dr. Bromery has been serving as special assistant to the chancellor for student affairs since last spring.
■Perseverance and hard work by the more than 1,000 parishioners of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church of Hatfield has made their new edifice a reality. Officiating at dedication ceremonies Thanksgiving Day will be Bishop Christopher J. Weldon, who will be assisted by former pastors and present pastors of Hatfield churches.
■When 28-year-old Daniel J. Szostkiewicz becomes Holyoke’s new mayor on Jan. 2, he will be thrust into the middle of two controversies. The mayor-elect, who won a surprise victory on Nov. 7, will attempt to land a casino for Holyoke, and to engineer the city’s takeover of the hydroelectric power plant’s license at the Holyoke Dam.
■A proposal to fight tooth decay by fluoridating Northampton’s water will go to a public hearing Monday, bringing a subject that once bitterly divided residents again before the Board of Health. The call for fluoridation comes this time from a Northampton dentist, Peter Laband, and is backed by the state Department of Public Health.
■The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association has begun a project to illuminate the lives of blacks living in Colonial New England, specifically in the town of Deerfield. According to Tim Neumann, executive director of the organization, PVMA has received three grants, totaling $35,000, to research and provide information for the African-Americans in Early New England Project.
■Ralph Hexter, the outgoing president of Hampshire College, is returning to California, where he has been named provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of California at Davis. Hexter came to Hampshire in 2005 from the University of California at Berkeley.