But the ban is having unintended consequences, driving drinking off campus and into the surrounding community.
It is also unclear whether it is really deterring students from drinking to excess.
In an Oklahoma bar, Jen has just turned 21, the state's legal drinking age, and is drinking shots of spirits to celebrate.
"I have to drink 21. It's kind of tradition" she says as she knocks back her fifth or sixth shot. She has already lost count.
But while drinking 21 shots remains a rite of passage, most students have started drinking long before.
Freshman Blake Hammontree was just 19 when he died of alcohol poisoning last September, at the University of Oklahoma.
His death sparked an all-out ban on drinking in residence halls, even for those over the legal age of 21.
It is not the first university campus to go dry, and some fraternities and sororities - once notorious for their alcohol-induced hazing - have already passed a drinking ban in their chapters across the country.
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BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US universities try going 'dry'
