Culture center director dies

Gwen Paulk only had two children. But, in the past week, hundreds of cards, many with the message "I love you, Mom," have come to the home she shared with her husband and two children, said daughter Darci, 21.\nPaulk, who was director of the African American Culture Center and had worked in some capacity at IU for 20 years, died of cancer Wednesday morning.\nShe graduated from IU with a bachelor's degree in 1987 and a master's degree in 1997.\n"She separated you from everything else when you needed her and she made you the focus. She really touched people just because of her spirit. Her spirit was loving and it was kind and just available. And it still is. I can feel her presence," Darci said. "She was like everybody's mother in a way, a surrogate mother…She adopted the students and they became like her kids." \nWhen Darci would call from college to her home in Bloomington at night, her mother would often still be at the cultural center working.\n "She'd be there 10 hours a day, sometimes more. She was always just trying to find something to build upon, to improve in some way, to encourage or enlighten someone," Darci said. \nPaulk's husband, Kim, said hundreds of students, professors and community members visited Paulk between last Thursday and Saturday at Bloomington Hospital. So many people came, Kim said the family had to put a sign on the door saying there couldn't be any more visitors. One visitor gave the family a guest book for people to sign; the book is three-fourths full.\n"The nurses said they'd never seen anyone who had this many guests, and they'd never had a patient who had a guest book," Kim said. "Her mother came out and spent the weekend. (Paulk) has been here in Indiana for 20 years and her mom had been away from her. But I think she got a very, very sharp picture of her daughter's impact at IU. She went away and she just said 'I just didn't know what kind of woman she was.'"\nBefore taking the position at the African American Cultural Center, Paulk was associate director of the Minority Achievers Program. Her husband said some of his strongest impressions of his wife's professional impact come through in the speech she would give to the program's freshman classes. Standing in front of the group of 150-200 students, Paulk would tell them their hard work wouldn't stop because they now had the freedom that comes with being in college.\n "(She'd tell them) 'You've got a new mother now,'" Kim said. \nCharlie Nelms, vice president for student development and diversity, has known Paulk for about 10 years and appointed her as director of the cultural center. Nelms said Paulk collaborated with many different campus organizations to serve the needs of her students.\n"She was just a tremendous person," Nelms said. "She cared deeply about her students and about her work and was an extremely good ambassador for IU and for equity and excellence."\nNelms said one of Paulk's greatest accomplishments was restoring the idea that the center was a place of action by holding workshops, discussions and other programs for students, faculty and community members. \n"The mission statement (for the AACC) was ASCEND, which stand for advocating social, cultural and educational excellence to nurture development and diversity," Nelms said. "I think that is a wonderful way to think about her work. It is about the business of ascending to another level of responsiveness, and that's what she brought to the needs of minority and majority students."\nIU President Myles Brand said Paulk was an advocate for diversity, understanding and increased opportunity.\n"She brought a personal touch to all of her endeavors, always insisting the University measure the success of our diversity efforts one student at a time," Brand said. "She was right, of course. We are very grateful that she shared her talents and her life with us."\nMaking the AACC a "home away from home" for students was one of Paulk's contributions to IU, said Gloria Gibson, associate vice chancellor for multicultural affairs.\n"She wanted to make it a welcoming environment for all students," Gibson said. "She wanted the cultural center to be a place where students went for a variety of activities: educational activities, cultural activities, social activities. That really improved the ambience (of) the center."\nGibson said Paulk would go out of her way to help people who came to her for assistance.\n"IU greatly benefitted from the years of service that she gave," she said.\nRyon Cobb, a sophomore, first met Paulk during his freshman year when he went to the cultural center looking for a job. He said Paulk brought him in for an interview and asked "about 50" questions and asked him to react to different scenarios. Although Cobb didn't get the job that day, but instead later on, he found someone he said "kept me on my toes when I need to be kept on my toes."\n"She was a friend, a mother, a kick in the butt when you needed it," he said. "If she couldn't help you, she would put you in touch with someone who could and she would follow up."\nWhile Paulk was in the hospital, Cobb said she would receive all her visitors as just as she would if they were coming to see her socially.\n"I'll always remember her because of her faith, she was a very faithful person," Cobb said. "She was truly just a mother to everybody and she'll be missed and never forgotten"