As the snow fell yesterday, the Office of Physical Plant (OPP) set out to clear the sidewalks and roads and said contrary to some students' opinions, its snow removal process is quick and efficient.

With snow remaining in the forecast today, OPP will continue to clear snow from Penn State's 24 miles of sidewalks, 31 miles of roads and 14,000 parking spaces.

The storm, which is predicted to end late this afternoon, should dump at least 18 inches on Penn State, Bill Syrett, manager of the weather observatory at Penn State, said.

Typically, Penn State receives 46 inches of snow each season. The last time Penn State received this much snow from a single storm was in February 2003, which dropped 18.2 inches on Happy Valley.

For some students, getting to class yesterday was slippery business.

"Usually, it's fine, but it seems today that they haven't been able to catch up," Elizabeth Zimmerman-Clayton (freshman-human development and family studies) said. "I only saw one pile of salt on my way to the library."

Paul Cowen (junior-professional golf management) said walking up Shortlidge Road to his 9:45 a.m. class was tricky.

"I was walking toward Thomas, and none of it was shoveled," he said.

Some students said they understood the situation.

"It's slippery, but it's hard for them to keep up since it keeps coming down," Alex Jaffe (junior-finance) said.

Tonight, a midnight clear will be put into effect, meaning faculty and staff parking lots have to remain clear through 7 a.m. to aid OPP's snow removal process, Lloyd Rhoades, OPP manager of central services, said. OPP employees were given the option to stay at the Nittany Lion Inn last night and will work in 16-hour shifts throughout the day today.

"At the end of the long shift we don't want them to have to drive home on dangerous highways," Paul Ruskin, OPP spokesman, said. "We will actually put crews up at Nittany Lion Inn so they can get a few hours of sleep and then go back out and resume snow-plowing again."

Yesterday's snowfall was hard to keep up with, but lighter snowfalls like the ones Penn State had a couple of weeks ago can actually be more difficult to deal with, Ruskin said.

"In some ways, a big storm is oddly a little easier," Ruskin said. "If you get a perfect little storm it can actually cause us a lot of problems because the wind will help snow accumulate around the sides of sidewalks, and if temperature drops below 20 degrees the salt no longer functions."

In the past couple of weeks, some students who have to walk to class said they were less than impressed.

Jennifer Brown (freshman-journalism) said she has fallen on the icy paths.

"It's been somewhat effective, but I've seen a lot of people falling on their way to class," Brown said.

OPP has a $400,000 to $700,000 budget each year for snow removal. Whatever money is left will be rolled over to the next year because winters can vary in intensity, Ruskin said.

OPP works with the Penn State meteorology department to predict inclement weather and how much snow Penn State will get, Syrett said.