Section A·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, April 8, 1999
Video game break
Jim Sprinkle, Prairie Village freshman, grins as he pulls a special move in the Sony Playstation game "Cool Boarders 3." The Sprint-supported event in front of the Kansas University gave away prizes such as Sony Playstation games, Sprint PC phones and T-shirts. Photo by Gus Koffler/KANSAN
Math celebration adds days for awareness
Mathematics Awareness Week has been multiplied by four.
By Chris Hopkins
chopkins@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
been mentioned by you.
Bozena Pasik-Duncan, professor of mathematics and coordinator of Math Awareness Month, said that seven days weren't enough to squeeze in all of the activities. This year, April will be a month-long celebration of numbers.
"It's just one way of celebrating math awareness," said Jack Porter, who is in charge of testing Lawrence school students. "We want to celebrate the best math students at all levels."
The month will include KU math competitions and workshops for junior high and high school students, lectures by local and national professors and professionals, and math department social and honors banquets.
ing calculators and possibly cash, Porter said, but meeting other good math students and seeing the KU campus would be beneficial to all involved.
Winning students will receive graph
Pasik Duncan said that in past years, activities for KU students and faculty hadn't fit into the Math Awareness week.
"In the past, it was mostly for the community," she said. "This year, the philosophy is to keep a balance between the community and KU students."
PasiK-Duncan said that Math Awareness week first began in 1986 and that KU had taken part for at least five years.
This year's theme is "Math and Biology." Pasik-Duncan said that the theme always emphasized the importance of math in another scientific area.
Victoria Corbin, assistant professor of molecular bioscience, said that without math, there would be nothing to back up anecdotal evidence.
anecdotal evidence.
The next event during Math Aware
ress Month is an Ellis B. Stouffer Colloquium at 4 p.m, today in 306 Snow Hall. It will be delivered by Gabor Hetyei, assistant professor of mathematics.
One of the main speeches was "Why are Birds Blue?" which was given by Richard Prum, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Prum said he was probably the last person that people would expect to speak about math, but that it was an important part of his speech.
part of his speech.
"The take-home message is that someone like me can become an applier, if not a producer, of very sophisticated math," he said. "I think a broad section of students can appreciate the talk."
Bryan McCloskey, Atchison Junior, was at Tuesday's speech. While McCloskey admitted that his attendance at Tuesday's lecture was for extra credit, he said he might attend some of the speeches without a similar incentive.
Police identify victims of Westport murders
- Edited by Clint Hooker
Motive of killings unknown by family of accused murderer
No charges had been filed in the deaths of the other men: Beach's stepson Michael Davis, 32, who shared the rented bungalow; Mark Nelson, 28, and Jeral Nickerson, 61, both of Kansas City; and Christopher Conrad, 27, of Overland Park.
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As police identified the last of five bodies found decomposing in the rented home of a lmousine driver charged with murder, the accused man's relatives wondered yesterday how the victims ended up dead at the house.
Gary Beach, 56, pleaded not guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court on one count each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of his step-nephew, 45-year-old Kenneth Gulley of Independence.
All five bodies were found Monday after relatives of Gulley summoned police because he
had not been seen in days. Beach was arrested Tuesday outside a hotel in the city's Westport entertainment district, not far from Beach's home.
Gulley's daughter, Brandy Sales, said yesterday her father worked as a mechanic at a truck-leasing company in North Kansas City and lived in Independence with his 5-year-old son, Sales and her husband. Gulley's mother is Beach's sister-in-law.
For more than a decade, Dubert had rented Beach the white single-story house. He paid his $400 a month in cash.
Killings.
"He killed two people that loved him very much and would never hurt a bone in his body," said Smith, who lives in Bartlesville, Okla.
As for the other victims, Nickerson was the last to be identified.
Outside the courthouse yesterday, Beach's stepdaughter Cheryl Smith — Michael Davis's sister — said she loved Beach and was trying to understand what could have led to the killings.
He had lived for a time in a home across the street from Beach. Nelson had been on
parole since Aug. 28, 1998, after serving jail time for felony assault. Hayward Johnson, who lived with Nelson, said he was a drinker who did not have a job.
Conrad, the son of an Overland Park police detective, served two years in a Kansas prison for attempted robbery.
in the hours before his arrest Tuesday, Beach reportedly called the homes of Kenneth Gulley's mother and brother. Dennis Gulley, who is a nephew of Beach.
Police finished searching the home for evidence Tuesday, saying they had collected about 300 bags of evidence, including two interior doors that were splattered with blood. Police also found 9mm shell casings and other small caliber shell casings.
All five men had been dead for days when police found the bodies Monday. Neighbors reported hearing gunshots from inside the midnight home early Friday morning, and said the home's air conditioner had run nonstop since then in an apparent attempt to slow decomposition.
BEACH Jim Maupin, a friend of Dennis Gulley, answered the phone at Dennis Gulley's home and heard a growling voice that he recognized as Beach.
nine hours past.
"Tell that (expletive) nephew of mine he is next," Beach reportedly said, referring to Dennis Gulley. "Tell him I am going to get him."
A man claiming to be Beach called The Kansas City Star early Tuesday and left a voice-mail message for a reporter. Two people, a relative and a longtime neighbor of Beach, identified the voice on the message as Beach's.
"I think you're on the wrong track. You kept emphasizing aboutmen, men, men. It was a crazy crack situation, where crack suppliers wouldn't leave certain people alone, and I finally got fed up with it," the caller said, referring to a Tuesday story in the paper.
died so far that "And two of the boys there, Mark Nelson and Mike Davis, I just didn't want them to live with the shame on their conscience of what they were."
Beach also made calls to the police department's robbery unit and tips hotline. Sgt. Dave Bernard would not say what Beach said during those calls.
Smith and another brother,
Donald Davis, both said they did
not think drugs had anything to
do with the killings.
The 2nd Annual Symposium on the Recruitment & Retention of Students of Color "Connecting the Circle"
April 16 & 17,1999 The University of Kansas Kansas Union (Registration for KU Faculty. Staff and Students $50.00)
Schedule At A Glance
Friday, April 16, 1999
• 3 PM - 5 PM Check-in/Registration - Ramada Inn
7:15PM - 8:30PM Keynote Address - Billy Mills (Free to Public)
Saturday, April 17, 1999
- 8:15 AM - 8:30 AM Welcome - Chancellor Robert Hemenway, University of Kansas
- 8:45AM - 9:15 AM Opening Speaker - Dr. Nina Patterson
- 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM Session I - Three Concurrent Sessions
- 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Conference Luncheon & Speaker - Dr. John Alderete, Kansas Union Ballroom
- 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM Session II - Three Concurrent Sessions
- 1:45 PM - 3:00 PM Session III - Three Concurrent Sessions
- 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM Session IV- Three Concurrent Sessions
- 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Closing Banquet & Speaker - Dr. Frederick S. Humphries, Kansas Union Ballroom
For Registration information Contact Tara Fitzpatrick 864-5447