The death of a 19-year-old University of Oklahoma student is a tragic incident, but the university’s campus-wide ban on alcohol may not be the best solution.

The student died of alcohol poisoning Sept. 30 at a Sigma Chi fraternity party, where his blood alcohol content was more than five times the legal limit.

In response, the university has banned drinking at fraternities and residence halls. Drinking already was prohibited at sorority houses.

The ban has good intentions of sending the message to students that the university will not tolerate such alcohol abuse.

But in reality, the ban likely will not prevent students from drinking on campus. It will provoke more drinking off-campus and force students who drink on campus to be more careful about who knows they are drinking.

It is clear some type of administrative action needed to be taken after the death of the student. Police are still investigating the death, and several Sigma Chi members will testify before a grand jury. The fraternity has been shut down.

But an overall ban on alcohol is not the solution. Oklahoma has 42 national fraternities and sororities and thousands of students who live in university housing. Although there have been other cases across the nation of drinking binges ending fatally, many college students who drink do so responsibly. That is likely the case among the Greek chapters and residence hall students at Oklahoma.

A more effective solution would be to provide stricter regulations on how often a fraternity can have large amounts of alcohol in the house. The new restrictions allow for three violations before a suspension. A hotline also has been set up for people to basically tattle on groups or students violating the new rules.

This same system could be used with alcohol regulations, not alcohol bans. We all know what happened during Prohibition and that shouldn’t be the case on Oklahoma’s campus.