Several of Nebraska's colleges and universities are joining forces to reduce high-risk drinking by students.

Top administrators at the University of Nebraska's Omaha and Kearney campuses, the three state colleges and six community colleges announced the new group on Wednesday.

The group, called the Nebraska Collegiate Consortium to Reduce High-Risk Drinking, said in a news release that it hopes to duplicate the success seen at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in combating high-risk drinking.

Since 1998, the NU Directions program at UNL has used a variety of strategies to reduce drinking.

The Nebraska Prevention Center at UNL received a $100,000 grant last fall from the U.S. Department of Education to help campuses across the state replicate the UNL model, said Tom Workman, assistant director of student involvement at UNL.

Any private college, university or community college not already in the group may join at any time, Workman said.

A series of workshops is planned for teams from each campus to help them build coalitions, plan strategies and other analysis. An Internet-based survey will also be made available to the campuses to help them collect information about college student drinking rates and related behaviors.

From the information collected, each participating institution will be able to craft a plan to address its needs.

Ian Newman, director of the Nebraska Prevention Center, said almost all other states have created similar networks of colleges and universities.

In addition to the NU campuses at Kearney and Omaha, the other participating colleges are Wayne, Peru and Chadron state colleges, and the following community colleges: Southeast, Northeast, Central, Mid-Plains, Western Nebraska and Metropolitan.