Specifically, what will it take for young people — especially young people smart enough to have completed high school and enrolled in college — to realize abuse of alcohol to the extreme can, in and of itself, kill?

In Hattiesburg, University of Southern Mississippi campus police have bolted shut the Kappa Sigma fraternity house, vacated after USM revoked the organization’s charter over a hazing incident that left a student hospitalized.

University officials were correct to take away permission for the fraternity to operate on campus after their investigation revealed violations of alcohol policies and the Student Code of Conduct involving physical assault, abuse or detention, reckless conduct and disorderly conduct.

And, of course, Mitchell Wilson, executive director of Kappa Sigma Fraternity, was quick to condemn the actions of the Epsilon Nu chapter for the Aug. 28 hazing incident that sent two female students to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. Not in keeping with their ethic, he said.

College kids want to be treated as adults. They want as little supervision as possible. All that’s fine and good, but it’s really an individual thing.

To be an adult means using at least a modicum of mature judgment. It means having the courage to say, “This is stupid and I’m not going to do it.”