Inevitably, a $45 million student housing development near the University of Cincinnati campus will be built.

The fact that City Council last week held up the $116,000 sale of three alleyways needed for the Stratford Heights Project, however, sends an important message to university officials that they should crack down on badly behaving students who live off campus, and soon.

Last Sunday, shortly after midnight, a crowd of about 600 people, many of them UC students, rioted on Stratford Avenue west of UC, turning over cars and pelting police with debris. They were celebrating Cinco de Mayo. UC officials claim the student code of conduct limits their influence over off-campus events. The policy must be changed.

Neighbors fear the new 14-building project that would accommodate about 600 more students would add to the density of the of the neighborhood and negatively impact it. Judging from last Sunday's behavior, who can blame them?

UC should quell their neighbors' fears and prove Council wrong. It should follow examples set by Ohio State University and others. Student rioters in Columbus will be arrested and suspended from school, said OSU President Karen Holbrook.

This action came on the heels of last year's post-Michigan victory riots.

Sure, Cincinnati Police have the power to arrest, but UC must assume responsibility for the behavior of its students by strengthening penalties for misbehavior.

As Mayor Charlie Luken said during the meeting, "The success of the city is inexorably linked to the success of the university, and vice versa."

Which is all the more reason UC should make sure its students are also good neighbors.