The fire is almost out. With a Deantrious Mitchell guilty plea last week, the most potentially volatile situation that has hit this campus in years — a fabricated racial beating — has, for the most part, settled in time for holiday good will.

That’s largely a good thing.

In the wake of several campus controversies, many of which are still lingering, we could all use some near Finals Week quiet. For that, we’re glad. The only problem is, there’s some unfinished business here.

Although Mitchell’s court-ordered punishment seems fitting: a year of probation and 100 hours of community service, there’s something else, regrettably, that needs to happen.

Mitchell, a sophomore in computer science who lied about being beaten and cut with a razor blade by eight white males, should be expelled if he doesn’t elect to voluntarily leave Iowa State.

It’s harsh. It’s final. It’s sad. It’s incredibly unfortunate. But it’s necessary. We feel sorry for Mitchell. We think he needs help, and with all sincerity, we hope that he gets it in time to turn his life around.

But what Mitchell did to this campus is not something that can be easily excused. Students are expelled, fortunately, with irregularity for academic dishonesty — cheating, if you will.

Mitchell cheated all 25,000 of us. He played victim for attention. He scared us. He made us feel ashamed. He looked us in the eyes and demanded we acknowledge his courage when all along he was hiding behind cowardice.

He did draw attention to obvious race relation problems on campus. Maybe that’s the good, in this case, that comes out of every bad situation. But there are better avenues to implement change.

We wish him luck in his efforts — if indeed he is making an effort — to regain the trust of those around him.

But trust in Mitchell will have to come from another community. He’s lost ours, and with it he should also lose the right to study among us, to be called our classmate.