It was 3 a.m., and someone was trying to kick down our front door.

My wife and I were terrified. We feared for our children who were sleeping in the next room. She called the police, and I went downstairs to defend my family in case the intruder entered. The door was shaking violently as I approached. I yelled through it for the man to leave. He persisted. I foolishly opened the door. And there stood a young man so drunk he could barely speak. He mumbled something about wanting to go to bed upstairs. I told him the police were on the way. The police arrived, but he was gone.

We didn’t sleep well. We still don’t.

I have had enough. Over the course of our time in Iowa City, we have witnessed in our immediate vicinity countless acts of violence, vandalism, and conduct unbecoming in every variety imaginable.

This is not “kids just being kids.” It is drunk students, encouraged by a permissive drinking culture and acting without fear of university sanction, causing mayhem in the very city that welcomes them and among the very people who teach them.

A student could be arrested for an off-campus murder, and the administration would not catch the charge until one of its rare statistical reviews. The deans would read about it in The Daily Iowan, just like you and me. And what would they do once they found out? Probably nothing. They can’t. The UI’s student code of conduct applies only on university grounds and at university events. Had the student who tried to kick in our front door been arrested, he could have been bailed out the next day and come to my class.

The UI already has a bad national reputation, fueled by its remarkable laxity when dealing with out-of-control drinking. It’s getting worse. As director of undergraduate studies in the history department, I meet prospective students and their parents regularly. What am I supposed to tell them? That the UI is a fine place — except that if you go downtown on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night that you might well be beaten unconscious by someone who is too drunk to know his own name?

Enough.

We are a world-class institution of higher learning, not a place to take some classes, get really smashed, and cause havoc. The students who believe we are the latter and not the former must be asked to leave for our sake and theirs. They — and I specifically mean students who violate the law while under the influence — are not hard to identify. The DI gets a list of them from the police every day. You’d think the university could do the same. Once identified, they could be dropped from the roles and told to go away until they are mature enough to be members of our community. I will be the first to welcome them back when they are.

But for now, enough. No more committees. No more consultants. It’s time for action, and the course is clear: Extend the student code of conduct to cover all of Iowa City and monitor the police blotter for university students who are charged with OWI, public intoxication, public urination, interfering with an official act, assault, breaking and entering, theft, keeping a disorderly house, etc. Banish these students from the university and Iowa City for a definite period; bring them back when they are ready to act as the fortunate students of a great university should.

Marshall Poe is an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the history department.