Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that a college campus is just like a human body? It has many different parts: departments, offices, committees, sub-groups of these committees and of course, the students. All of these parts, while distinct and capable of functioning on their own, come together to create one big entity.

The different core offices of campus operations make up the backbone of this body. They ensure that everything is in its place and runs smoothly. Physical plant happens to be one of the vertebrae that makes up the backbone of Le Moyne. They help support the weight of the school, just as human vertebrae do.

We tend to rely on physical plant and call upon them for a lot. Whether something needs to be checked, fixed or replaced, they’re always there. While they do so much to help keep Le Moyne running, many people often give them a bad rep.

Some complain about the time in which it takes them to get things done or even just respond to a work order. Others go as far as to say that physical plant doesn’t actually help very much. But then again, people do love to complain. And I’m not going to lie, during my first two years at Le Moyne, I may have had these same thoughts once or twice. Then I realized how much they do for us around campus.

Everyone knows the busiest time of the year is always welcome weekend and the first week of school. This is the time when everyone is moving in and when most of the residential facilities are being used for the first time in months. Needless to say, there are always problems or things that need to be fixed, and therefore, many work orders.

This year, I moved into my townhouse early and immediately noticed some things that needed to be repaired. I made sure to get in my work order before the freshmen started moving in the next day. To my surprise, the two things that needed to be fixed were done before Friday was even halfway over.

Later that weekend, after the rest of my roommates moved in, we noticed a few more things that needed to be fixed, including two kitchen appliances. While someone was here from physical plant to solve a minor problem, we mentioned the problems with our kitchen appliances. Without hesitation, he told us that we would get new ones by the end of the week. Two days later, we got the new appliances. This was a much quicker turn around than expected.

The next day when they came back to pick up the old fridge, we needed assistance with something that we were all too weak to do ourselves. Out of the goodness of their hearts, the two workers: Frank and Frank, or The Franks as my townhouse likes to call them, spent some time trying to help us and eventually succeeded. Throughout this ordeal, they were very helpful and gracious about it all.

Might I add that this all happened within the first week of school, which, as I mentioned, is one of the busiest times of the year for this department.

So, while many people around campus give physical plant a hard time, and while this department and their workers may not feel appreciated all of the time, I would just like to say thank you. Thank you Le Moyne physical plant and thank you to The Franks. You are the real MVPs of the week!