Over the last week there have been a number of letters to the editor concerning the university's snow removal efforts.

The Office of Physical Plant (OPP) is charged with snow removal for Penn State, in addition to many other responsibilities.

However, the single most important organizational and personal goal of all our employees is the safety of students, faculty and staff.

Because of our commitment to safety, we take snow and ice removal very seriously.

Our organization has more than 50 people in our landscape crews who clear the 24 miles of sidewalks on campus. Our equipment crew clears 32 miles of roads, 14,000 surface parking spaces and accesses to almost 800 buildings. We also have more than 100 custodians working to keep building entrances clear of snow and ice.

So, the question is, if we have this many people working around the clock to clear snow and ice, why do we still have snow removal challenges?

There are three reasons:

1. This January has been extremely cold. When temperatures drop below 20 degrees, salt becomes ineffective.

2. It's been a windy season causing much drifting over previously cleared walkways.

3. Timing is also an obstacle.

The last several storms have all arrived in the very late evening or early morning. It takes OPP about eight to 10 hours to clear a moderately-sized snowstorm, if there are normal temperatures outside.

We have had several major storms this winter with subfreezing weather. This has made our task even more challenging.

I want to assure you that we are doing our utmost to make this campus safe in this extreme winter.