[gafftaper]

Yeah I have to agree that the fire marshal is not the one to be upset at. He really can't do much in these areas. You need to look toward OSHA... but don't start there unless you want to have everyone on campus mad at you.

Step one. Study the law and create a list of hazards that concern you.
The first thing I would do is drop $80 and pick up a copy of Dr. Doom's book Practical Health and Safety Guidelines for School Theater Operations This book will really help you identify the safety risks. It will also be a great resource for step two.

Second, go to your campus risk management people and ask them to come take a tour with you. Remember its that person's job to find dangers and figure out how to make things safer, so this person is your biggest ally. Have Dr. Doom's book on hand with issues tagged and easy to find so you can point out what he says in the book and the real life problems. You'll probably scare the crap out of this person... I wouldn't show them every problem, just pick a few blatant ones.

Third is to work with the Administration and the Risk Management department to propose solutions that won't be extremely expensive.

It's going to be a long fight. Find the most dangerous things and address them first. Don't ask for $100k up front, ask for $10k a year to fix things in phases.