Last year, a young man visiting university students here fell to his death from a balcony in Mankato. He’d been drinking. Last month, a student died after she drank a lethal amount of alcohol. Last weekend, one student was killed and another severely injured when they were struck by a car. They had been at an off-campus sorority party and police say alcohol was a factor.

Then, there are the unknown number of local accidents, arrests, injuries, sexual assaults and related crimes that have one unifying element — excessive drinking.

Maybe it’s time to do something.

Really do something. Not just hold another memorial service, appoint another task force, or shrug it off by saying kids will be kids.

It would be unfair to say no one cares or that no one is trying to help. A lot of people are trying very hard. But Mankato still lacks the kind of comprehensive and sustained effort that starts to put a lid on drinking by some that has gone far beyond a “rite of passage.”

For whatever reasons, more young people are drinking more hard liquor to extremes that endanger their lives or kill them.

Recent surveys show the number of college students who say they drink solely to get drunk has more than doubled in recent years. The upper Midwest’s drinking problems — for all ages — is higher than most anywhere in the country.

The lead in helping curb what has become a crisis falls in large part to Minnesota State University.

It’s not that they’ve caused the problem. It’s not that they don’t try to educate their students about dangerous drinking. The president and student and staff groups have worked hard to combat excessive drinking. They are concerned and committed to help.

And MSU can’t and shouldn’t alone address the problem.

But when you are the institution that brings more than 14,000 young people to town, you have an extraordinary obligation.

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to tackle the problem. A few campus towns already know what works.

One example is our sister institution, Minnesota State University — Moorhead.

Three years ago, Moorhead, too, saw two students die from alcohol abuse. Their response was bold and expansive — and it appears to work.

The university has explicit, detailed rules for its students: Don’t drink on campus. Don’t drink anywhere if you’re underage. Don’t get in trouble if you are legal age and drink.