At 7 a.m., most students aren't even thinking of waking up. But Terry Long's day has already begun. Long, an Office of Physical Plant electrician, has a day that stretches from 7 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m.

Despite the fact that OPP workers are relatively unknown to students, they are the grease that keeps the University's machinery running smoothly.

Many OPP workers put in 40-hour weeks, but the hours don't seem to keep them from enjoying their work.

"I enjoy my job because of the challenge it presents and because of the variety of the work," Long said.

And although most students don't even realize what OPP is, the fact that their job goes unnoticed doesn't seem to bother most of the workers.

"Personally, it doesn't bother me because I understand that what we do is so vast that the students can't fully comprehend what we do," said Paul Carothers, a heating and ventilating technician.

Many students associate OPP with blue vans and shoveled sidewalks.

"I would assume that they take care of the physical structure of the University," said Josh Mattson (freshman-psychology).

George Schimmel, OPP's director of maintenance and operations, said OPP's official job is "to operate, maintain and clean the University's facilities to provide quality conditions for education and research."

The most important job depends on the situation, he added. If there is a big snowstorm, the first job is to clear the walkways; if there is a flood, the top priority is to dry it up. There isn't one major task for OPP -- it changes, and workers give their attention to whatever the situation warrants, Schimmel said.

Besides being where the action is, OPP is responsible for an area the size of a small city -- a fact that makes it impossible for one or two departments to take care of everything, Schimmel added.

So to make things easier, OPP has 875 employees and is divided into seven different departments, with each department's director answering to Norm Bedell, OPP's assistant vice president. The departments are responsible for different jobs, Schimmel said. For example, if a heater breaks in a dorm, OPP's utilities department sends a technician.

Or if the University is not fulfilling an Americans with Disabilities Act regulation, OPP's facilities and resources department will assign someone to bring it up to the standards.

Sometimes the workers can be assigned to a job where they run into some weird situations. Don Bettleyon, a trades foreman, said he once found a family of owls in a water tower while doing repairs.

Another little-known fact is that the Nittany Lion -- in the tip-off circle on Rec Hall's basketball court -- was hand painted by workers from OPP's paint shop, Schimmel said.