I have to agree with Wayne on this one.  Trying to legislate this is a very
slippery slope and in the long run not effective.  Because even if you had a
law, the judicial system will not be timely and not very punitive.  They
have far more important problems than "bad judgment" stuff.  Items like
accessing a roof illegally would rank on the same penalty structure as
catching a fish that is too short....it can become a joke.

To which I offer 3 ideas that do work base on my experience:

First, having the campus adopt rules that affect all of the campus owned and
sanctioned institutions.  This type of enactment would give you direct
control and access to the rules and punishment body that your school
administrates for things like dorm damage, alcohol policy infractions etc.
without having to wait for the "law" to work.  In addition, this type of
policy stuff can be used to administer to frats and related campus
sanctioned groups even if they are not owned by the school.  The only thing
left out are private residential settings.  Trying to govern the latter is a
constitutional matter you don't want to get involved in...you will always
lose.

A second path would be to lobby the owners to enact rules that prohibit such
behavior.  The best part about this is that the private owners who rent to
students can enact these things as part of the lease etc.   You have a
relatively recent case in point as a motivating example and on this list, I
bet you could find at least a dozen others right off the bat to help make
your case. In addition, you can easily sell it as a liability reduction
issue to the owners.  If you really want to push the issue, I would suggest
drafting a paragraph for inclusion in a standard lease for the owners.  (get
some legal help to keep it manageable)

As an example at my alma mater, our Alumni board owned the actual building
our fraternity lived in.  They recognized the problem in part due to a
recent campus fall related injury, despite the fact that they used the roof
for most of their years at school, and made it very clear to us actives that
this was not acceptable behavior.  To enforce this more effectively, they
erected a chain link barrier off of a portion of the fire escape that we
used to access the roof (the actual fire escape was not affected).  Within a
couple of years, noone in the house had every been on the roof and therefore
did not miss it or have an urge to try.  Hazard essentially solved.

My last suggestion is a little more sleazy but works rather well with most
of the "offenders" that you are dealing with....Simply TELL them it is
illegal or that the campus has adopted rules with harsh punishment.  This is
one of those things that noone is ever going to check to see if it really
exists, but if the school mentions it, the campus staff/police issue
warnings about etc.  You will get what you really want without having the
formal rigors of a law or regulation.

Just my $.05 or so

Paul E. Sincaglia, P.E.
Firesafety Solutions, Inc.
Chagrin Falls, OH
440.247.3770
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: International Association of Campus Fire Safety Officials
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Wayne Blubaugh
> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 10:24 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Roof Ordinance
>
>
> Let's see if I got this right...one person fell off a roof a few
> years ago,
> and now you want an ordinance that persons can't be on a roof unless they
> are doing repairs.  This is the type of counter-productive bureaucratic
> nonsense that leads to a loss of support for truly important issues.
>
> I usually don't respond to these e-mails, but in this case I have to say
> that we can not, and should not, attempt to legislate to protect
> for lack of
> common sense.  Spend time where it makes the greatest impact.
> Heaven knows
> there are enough real fire safety issues that need addressed.
>
> Wayne Blubaugh, M.P.A.
> Fire & Life Safety Officer
> University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
> (303) 724-0293
>
>