A front page story in the April 17 Schenectady Gazette says it has been a year since Union College president David Harris and others announced plans for a new ice rink next to the Rivers Casino, but nothing obvious has happened since. It may be because it is a bad idea for multiple reasons.

Hockey players have been opposed to moving off campus. Despite the extreme time requirements, they have also been among the best students. They have appreciated having a convenient location on campus for the many required hours of workout and practice.

The proposed location is a long walk. It also requires a dangerous pedestrian crossing next to a multiple lane traffic circle with changing speeds of various vehicles entering and leaving.

The existing Archilles Center blends nicely into the campus architecture and playing fields. It is rarely filled to capacity and is excellent for watching hockey games. There is no room for improvement with the recent addition of a video scoreboard and surrounding cameras and excellent operators to show replays and scanning the crowd.

Hopefully the leadership of Union College is reconsidering the spending a lot of money on an unnecessary and inconvenient off campus facility while abandoning a campus treasure.