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This sounds very similar to what happened at my school when I was there (and the year before). According to people I was friends with (and FuzzieAlum can probably comment on this...), there was a bar on campus where everyone used to go and have fun. Yeah, there was underage drinking, but it happens. The school didn't like that, so it bought the bar and closed it.
I started college the next year, and there were a lot of fun parties on campus. They were pretty much all fraternity parties, and while I'm sure there were many exceptions, from what I remember they usually had security present, someone was always checking a guest list or IDs, etc. They may have broken rules involving drinking, but that also happens.
So at one point in the year, a freshman was at a fraternity party and got drunk. From what I've heard, they don't know if he was even drinking there, but he was drunk while he was there. The next morning - after having slept for 10 hours - he slipped in the bathroom, hit his head on the sink and died. While it was a tragic incident, the fraternity got blamed and sanctioned, many of the fraternities were forced to go dry, and the school created new rules that basically made it impossible to throw a party. It became the excuse the school needed to crack down further on any drinking on campus.
So what has it done to the campus? People still drink. They find a way to do it, even if they're underage. They do it holed up in a dorm room somewhere. If nothing else, greeks on my campus always watch out for anyone at one of their parties, even if it's because they know what will happen to the org. if something bad happens. Those I know who've had too much to drink at a fraternity have been taken care of. People have even been escorted to the hospital if it was necessary. I haven't heard otherwise, although I'm sure bad things do happen.
Now, without a place to go to party relatively safely, students drink in their rooms or off campus. And guess what? People still die, only they die because they passed out in their room and there was no one who'd take care of them. At least before, the drinking was somewhat controlled. But then, the school used the one excuse it had to crack down, and the students were less happy and still found a way to get themselves hurt.
This is in no way meant to encourage drinking, let alone underage or at fraternity parties, but it's pretty much a fact of life that college students drink, and sometimes they drink too much. At least if you can somewhat ensure they're doing it semi-responsibly by letting them do it in the open instead of behind closed doors, I think there's a better chance that if something bad happens, it can be taken care of before it gets worse.
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