D4/1 Archives - Standards Michigan

προμηθέας 300

Today we run through recent action in fire safety best practice literature. Even though fire safety technologies comprise about 2-4 percent of a new building budget, the influence of the fire safety culture dominates all aspects campus safety; cybersecurity of public safety communication technology for example.

A small sample of the issues we have tracked in the past: (2002-2023). Items in RED indicate success in reducing cost with no reduction in safety (i.e. successful rebuttal, typically market-making by incumbents)

Limiting vendor lock-in (promote interoperability) in building additions.
Limiting the tendency to lowball first cost in order to achieve vendor lock-in later in the facility life-cycle
Dormitory kitchen fire safety

Fire Safety of University Dormitory Based on Bayesian Network

Clarification of mixed-occupancy classifications (occupant loading)
Fixed interval (rather than risk-informed) inspection, testing and maintenance of fire alarm and protection system components
Fire alarm system upgrades during renovation

Gamification Teaching in School Fire Safety

Mixed zone and addressable alarm system wiring
Wireless initiation devices
Integrated fire protection systems (NFPA 3&4)
Portable fire extinguishers (NFPA 10)

Hospital Evacuation under Fire

Alarm system re-set procedures
Sprinkler system coverage for animals in research
Scalability of fire safety professional certification
Sprinklering of off-campus student housing
Advocating central (or campus district) fire pump systems

One of the newer issues to revisit over the past few years is the fire safety of tents. Many colleges and universities are setting up large commercial tents outside buildings (within range of Wi-Fi) for students to congregate, study and dine. We are also seeing back and forth on fire safety in theatrical performance venues in the International Code Council building safety catalog.

We approach these titles with an eye toward driving risk-informed, performance requirements that reduce risk and cost for the user interest; while recognizing the responsibility of competitor stakeholders. It is not a friendly space for the user-interest who seeks to optimally resolve the competing requirements of safety and economy. Vertical incumbents completely dominate this domain.

Prepared Hero Fire Blanket

Relevant NFPA Titles:

NFPA 10 Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers

- Public Input Closing Date: June 1, 2023

NFPA 13 Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems

NFPA 25 Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems

NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code®

- Public Comment Closing Date: May 31, 2023

NFPA 75 Standard for the Fire Protection of Information Technology Equipment

NFPA 76 Standard for the Fire Protection of Telecommunications Facilities

NFPA 92 Standard for Smoke Control Systems

- Public Comment Closing Date: January 4, 2023

International Code Council Group A 2021/2022 Code Cycle

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

More

NFPA Report: Structure Fires in Dormitories, Fraternities, Sororities and Barracks

ASTM Committee E0% on Fire Standards

Standing Agenda / Prometheus

Key Updates on Fire Safety Standards

Why do Humans Stare at Fire? : Scientific aspects of primal magic of fire

The Science of Fire

Health & Safety Executive: Science and research facilities

GOV.UK: Fires in e-bikes and e-scooters 20255

Fire Safety

Key Updates on Fire Safety Standards

Clery Act

The Clery Act has been amended by the Stop Campus Hazing Act. Institutions must now include hazing incidents among their reported campus-safety statistics and include policies concerning hazing, reporting, investigation and prevention in their Annual Security Reports.

Institutions must also develop a Campus Hazing Transparency Report identifying student organizations found responsible for hazing violations. The report includes the organization, a general description of the violation, sanctions and relevant dates. Where violations have occurred, the report must be published on the institution’s website and updated at least twice annually.

2026/2027 Guidance

Update: February 26, 2025

The federal requirement for a school safety plan is outlined in the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, commonly known as the Clery Act. The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal student financial aid programs to develop and publish an annual security report that includes certain safety-related policies, procedures, and crime statistics.

The Clery Act requires that schools include specific information in their security reports, including:

The school’s crime statistics for the previous three years.
Information about the school’s policies and procedures related to campus safety and security.
Information about crime prevention programs and services offered by the school.
Information about the school’s emergency response and evacuation procedures.
Information about the school’s policies and procedures for addressing and reporting incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
Information about the school’s drug and alcohol policies and prevention programs.

While the Clery Act only applies to colleges and universities that receive federal student financial aid, many states and school districts have adopted similar requirements for K-12 schools to develop and implement comprehensive safety plans. These plans may include many of the same elements as Clery Act-compliant security reports, such as emergency response protocols, crime prevention programs, and policies for addressing incidents of violence and harassment.

Example Reports:

Clery Act Reports by School

University of Michigan Ann Arbor Annual Security and Fire Safety Report 2024

Michigan State University: 2022 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report

Davenport University: 2022 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report

Central Michigan University: 2022 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report

March 2020 Update

The most recent changes to the Clery Act were made in March 2020, when the Department of Education published the final rule amending the Clery Act regulations. The changes include:

Expanding the definition of sexual harassment to include quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment, which aligns with Title IX regulations.
Requiring institutions to report stalking and domestic violence in addition to existing crime categories.
Adding hazing as a reportable crime category.
Requiring institutions to compile and publish hate crime statistics for all categories of prejudice, including gender identity and national origin.
Requiring institutions to include specific policies and procedures in their annual security reports, such as those related to prevention and response to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
Requiring institutions to provide survivor-centered and trauma-informed services to individuals who report or experience sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking.
Requiring institutions to include information about prevention and response to cyberbullying and electronic harassment in their annual security reports.
Allowing institutions to provide annual security reports electronically and requiring institutions to make their crime statistics publicly available on their website.

These changes aim to strengthen the Clery Act’s requirements for campus safety and to better address sexual harassment and other forms of violence on college and university campuses.

Clery Act Appendix for FSA Handbook

Every new federal law involving paperwork creates an uncountable number of trade associations and compliance enterprises. A simple web search on “Cleary Act” will reveal half the internet full of pages for more information. Our focus is on the user-side — i.e. making inquiries and pushing back on the gaudy proliferation of regulatory requirements, the integrity of purpose of the law notwithstanding. We maintain this title on the standing agenda on all of our Security colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

K-12 School Security

Allston District Energy

Leers Weinzapfel Associates: Complete Project Prospectus 2021

Harvard Capital Project Vitals

Standards Massachusetts

Mechanical 330

Scouser District Energy

Eurocodes

Energy Management Systems

The Seven Sins of Greenwashing

“Eco-friendly”, “Green”, “Bio”… Companies are increasingly using those tags as a signal to consumers of their environmental awareness. Yet also on the rise is a public concern about potential corporate lies in this subject, a phenomena labelled as “greenwashing”.

According to IESE professor Pascual Berrone, “many companies highlight one green positive aspect of their product or service, and hide the true impact that its production has on the environment”. With more and more NGO’s act as public watchdogs, “the consequences of getting caught can be, in terms of reputation but also economically, severe”, he says.

Universidad de Navarra | Iruña

Uno a uno

Building Environment Design

Climate Psychosis

“The only thing worse than religion is lack of religion”

— Edmund Burke

U.S. Global Change Research Program: Overview and Considerations for Congress

IPCS New Comment on Climate Change

European Geosciences Union: The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP7

A conversation with Bjorn Lomborg, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, the president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, and one of the foremost climate experts in the world today. His new book — “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet” — is an argument for treating climate as a serious problem but not an extinction-level event requiring such severe and drastic steps as rewiring a large part of the culture and the economy.

Starting soon! https://t.co/JL03EIEMqo pic.twitter.com/Ttpp4TA8jr

— Wendy Bohon, PhD 🌏 (@DrWendyRocks) December 28, 2023

Dialectic: Climate Change

Mass Formation Psychosis

Centre for Studies of Climate Change Denialism

Readings

Brookings: Michael Crichton and Global Warming

The alarmist reddening of weather maps is a perfect visualisation of how 5th generational warfare works. We’re dealing with an information war and the battlefield is our mind. @RWMaloneMD pic.twitter.com/nTBv5yhYbS

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) May 23, 2023

Elevators & Lifts

The first elevator in the United States was installed at Harvard University in 1874. It was not a passenger elevator as we typically think of today, but rather a freight elevator used to move heavy items within a building. The installation of this elevator marked an important development in building technology and transportation within multi-story structures. It was based on the design of Elisha Otis, who is famous for inventing the safety elevator with a safety brake system that prevents the elevator from falling if the hoisting cable fails. Otis’ innovation played a pivotal role in making elevators safe and practical for everyday use, leading to their widespread adoption in buildings around the world.

International Building Code Chapter 30: Elevators and Conveying Systems

Elevator design by the German engineer Konrad Kyeser (1405)

Education communities are stewards of 100’s of lifts, elevators and moving walks. At the University of Michigan, there are the better part of 1000 of them; with 19 of them in Michigan Stadium alone. The cost of building them — on the order of $50,000 to $150,000 per floor depending upon architectural styling — and the highly trained staff needed to operate, maintain and program interoperability software is another cost that requires attention. All building design and construction disciplines — architectural, mechanical and electrical have a hand in making this technology safe and sustainabile.

We start with international and nationally developed best practice literature and work our way to state level adaptations. Labor for this technology is heavily regulated.

Its a rarefied and crazy domain for the user-interest. Expertise is passionate about safety and idiosyncratic but needs to be given the life safety hazard. Today we review o pull together public consultation notices on relevant codes, standards and regulations today 11 AM/EDT.

Московский государственный университет имени

Elevators 500

More

NFPA 70 Article 620 Elevators, etc.

NEC Article 620 | David Herres

Elevator U

International Building Code Chapter 30: Elevators and Conveying Systems

Inside Higher Ed: Tragedy in an Elevator

Jimlielevators

University of Michigan Elevator Recall Control Wiring Schematic

University of Michigan Elevator Shaft Lighting Schematic

Disaster 500

Thinking about how that groundhog lied to us 🤨🤨🤨 pic.twitter.com/ZQOzzteCzs

— Penny Kmitt (@pennylikeacoin) April 4, 2024

During today’s session we approach disaster avoidance, management and recovery literature from a different point of view than our customary approach — i.e. what happens when, a) there is failure to conform to the standard, b) there is no applicable standard at all. This approach necessarily requires venturing into the regulatory and legal domains. We will confine our approach to the following standards development regimes:

De facto standards: These are standards that are not officially recognized or endorsed by any formal organization or government entity, but have become widely adopted by industry or through market forces. Examples include the QWERTY keyboard layout and the MP3 audio format.
De jure standards: These are standards that are formally recognized and endorsed by a government or standard-setting organization. Examples include the ISO 9000 quality management standard and the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standard.
Consortium standards: These are standards that are developed and maintained by a group of industry stakeholders or organizations, often with the goal of advancing a particular technology or product. Examples include the USB and Bluetooth standards, which are maintained by the USB Implementers Forum and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, respectively.
Open standards: These are standards that are freely available and can be used, implemented, and modified by anyone without restriction. Examples include the HTML web markup language and the Linux operating system.
Proprietary standards: These are standards that are owned and controlled by a single organization, and may require payment of licensing fees or other restrictions for use or implementation. Examples include the Microsoft Office document format and the Adobe PDF document format.
ANSI accredited standards developers with disaster management catalogs

We may have time to review State of Emergency laws on the books of most government agencies; with special attention to power blackout disasters.

Tornadoes Are Deadly: These New Building Codes Will Save Lives
Cases involving the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment might be relevant when government actions related to natural disasters affect private property rights.
National Regulatory Research Institute: Should Public Utilities Compensate Customers for Service Interruptions?

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Case Briefings

https://t.co/chd9RJVc7G
print(“Disaster”) pic.twitter.com/Lu6Dw3bARq

— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) November 15, 2021

Managing Disaster with Blockchain, Cloud & IOT

Readings / Emergency Telecommunication Plans

Homeland Power Security

Storm Shelters

Current Code Development Cycle: 2024–2026

Happening Now: Groups A&B Public Comment Hearings

March 12, 2026

2024 GROUP A PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE I-CODES

Tag Archives: D4/1