The Auburn Plainsman Thursday, October 31, 2013
A SPIRIT THAT IS NOT AFRAID ThePlainsman.com
Vol. 120, Issue 22, 14 Pages
From David to Darcy, student embraces new identity
ONLINE
Kyle Nazario CAMPUS WRITER
Football vs. Arkansas Check out ThePlainsman.com for game updates and photos
COMMUNITY A7
Gnu News The Gnu’s Room returns with a gnu space and a gnu look
SPORTS
A9
SARAH MAY / ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Darcy Corbitt preparing for her day by putting on makeup.
On May 11, 2013, Darcy Corbitt was born at 21 years of age. With her friends gone for the summer, Corbitt moved a couch, three bookshelves and more than 350 books into an apartment to start her new life. She had $70 in her checking account. It was the day before her birthday. The Auburn University senior no longer wanted to go by her birth name, David Hall. She wanted to start again as Darcy. “When I was really little, 3, 4, I thought I was a girl,” Corbitt said. “I went by a girl’s name in my mind, but I never told anyone because I knew it was socially unacceptable.” Corbitt struggled with such feelings throughout her childhood and said despite being born biologically male, she never felt like a man. “I tried to be that person for 18 years and it didn’t fit me,” Corbitt said. With help from her friends, she began exploring the idea of living as a woman. Bonnie Wilson in the Women’s Initiatives Office said she recalled a poignant conversation about gender identity with Corbitt when she still went by David. “I asked her, ‘if there weren’t any barriers, what would you be?’” Wilson said. “And (Corbitt) said, ‘a woman.’ And I said, ‘then that’s what you are.’” Corbitt said she also credits Spectrum, Auburn’s Gay-Straight Alliance, with helping her come to understand her
Putting parking issues in drive Malzahn, Frazier head home Arkansas natives return to their home state
INTRIGUE
A12
Design students carve into fall Auburn’s 25th annual Pumpkin Carve lit up Dudley Courtyard
READERS RESPOND
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INDEX Campus Opinion Community Sports Intrigue
A2 A6 A7 A9 A12
Derek herscovici CAMPUS WRITER
After years of being a traffic jam, Auburn University is green-lighting new transit system policies that may lead to the end of road rage on campus. Transit routes, parking garages and game day parking for both students and visiting tailgaters were points of conversation among students and administrators of the University transit services department at the fourth HeAUrd That! discussion Tuesday, Oct. 29. The scarce amount of parking during home games and exam week was the biggest topic the small gathering discussed in AUSC 2222. “[The RV’s are] totally out of hand,” said Greg Parsons, University Architect said. “The evolution of trying to get those to move out and take the campus back to where it could function as a campus, you had to find some places to move, and unfortunately, some of those ended up in probably not the locations that any of us
would choose.” Parsons said Auburn Athletics and Gameday Committee is in charge of game day parking, but no one can build on Auburn’s campus without obstructing something else. “One of our biggest issues in student government is to get actual feedback from students,” said Rob Garcia, assistant vice president of auxiliary services with the Student Government Association. “Students don’t know how to reach out to SGA or the administration, but there’s a section on our website under HeAUrd That! where they can post comments.” Parsons said solutions to problems facing the 5 p.m. oncampus parking policy include building additional parking complexes around campus, ending faculty workdays before 5 p.m. or pushing evening classes back to 5:30 p.m. to allow students time to park and walk. Parking garages in particular are a popular solution to the hunter-gatherer style
Ben Hohentatt CAMPUS REPORTER
With a layout some students might find confusing and an advancing age, few things are as regularly maligned as the Haley Center. One of those things would probably be asbestos, the building material linked to mesothelioma, which the Haley Center itself contains. “There are protocols in place to make sure there is no hazard,” said Greg Parsons, University architect. Corbin Hamby, supervisor for as-
identity. “If I didn’t have the GSA, I don’t know what I would have done,” Corbitt said. “I’d have probably killed myself.” When she still used the name David, Corbitt said she came within seconds of committing suicide after being outed as someone attracted to men. “The only thing stopping me was I couldn’t break the razor blade out of my razor,” Corbitt said. “I just kind of thought that was funny. I laughed, and I thought, ‘I can’t really kill myself. I’ve got so much I can do in the world.’” Corbitt fully accepted being Darcy last May, on her 21st birthday. The transition hasn’t been easy. Some friends offered minimal support for her new public identity. Corbitt said her best friend from high school, a girl who drove three hours from the University of Montevallo to see her during their freshman year, unfriended her on Facebook last summer. “You post a lot of gay stuff,” Corbitt said the friend told her. Corbitt said she recently ran into her former best friend. When Corbitt tried to start a conversation, the friend showed little pleasure in seeing her. Other groups have reacted differently to the news. Corbitt sent an email to every professor she’s worked with in the past to let them know about the change.
» See IDENTITY A2
Hardcore Parkour
search for space, allowing the school to maintain its unique layout without having costly road expansion. Parsons said a new parking deck, with twice the capacity of the original, will be erected on the site of the former Ralph Brown Draughon Library parking deck, with construction slated for the summer of 2014. A second, 750-car capacity garage is being built adjacent to the South Donahue garage, which administrators anticipate to be ready by the summer of 2014 as well. Garcia said the PC parking system, created in 2011, already implements aspects of that solution, staggering certain parking passes at different times throughout the day, though the good it does to students was poorly communicated by the SGA and the administration. “Transit times on Donahue have decreased, we have less complaints from faculty that
Page A5
» See PARKING A2
bestos control, said asbestos is present in the center, above the ceiling, and in some of the floor tiles. Hamby also said a spray-on form of asbestos was used to help fire proof the building during construction. Parsons said the asbestos in the Haley Center is left from before the health risks associated with the mineral were known. “No new asbestos-containing products have been used in any new projects,” Parsons said. Both Hamby and Parsons were insis-
tent that the presence of asbestos in the center is manageable and not particularly dangerous. “When a problem occurs we take care of it,” Hamby said. Parsons said this is manageability is because of the type of asbestos present in the building and its location. “Asbestos comes in many forms, and some forms are more suspect when it comes to contact with people,” Parsons said Parsons cited piping insulation as one of the more harmful types of as-
bestos, and he said the Haley Center’s pipes are not insulated with materials containing asbestos. Asbestos is harmful to people when it is no longer intact and releases asbestos fibers and dust into the air. Parsons said the asbestos contained above the ceiling and under the floor tiles does not make contact with people and are not disturbed in a way which cause them to release fibers or dust.
» See ASBESTOS A2