UNM, Nusenda mark milestone for financial capability center

The University of New Mexico and Nusenda Credit Union marked a milestone for a campus program meant to help students survive the financial pressure that can derail a degree. UNM says the Nusenda Center for Financial Capability is based in the Dean of Students Office and is designed to ease financial stress by helping students overcome barriers that can stand between them and graduation.

The center’s pitch is straightforward: give students practical money skills before tuition, rent, transportation and family obligations overwhelm them. UNM has said the effort is aimed especially at first-generation students, Pell Grant-eligible students and students with lower incomes, groups that often have the least room for error when a surprise bill or a missed work shift hits.

UNM says the center offers workshops, one-on-one peer coaching, budget-sheet templates and private financial consultations with a Certified Personal Financial Coach. The services are meant to help students budget and plan, find scholarships and avoid loans, prepare to move off campus, build credit safely, begin talking about investing and set up a plan to repay student loans. The center’s services page says it hosts four workshops per semester.

That is where the accountability question comes in. UNM says the main goal is to help students leave the university with as little debt as possible, but the public case for the program will ultimately rest on measurable results: how many students use it, whether users are more likely to stay enrolled, and whether the center helps reduce the budgeting problems that can push students out of school. In a county where housing, food and transportation costs remain a daily pressure for many families, the center’s value will depend on whether it changes student behavior and outcomes, not just whether it exists.

The partnership also reflects a long-running relationship between the university and the Albuquerque credit union. UNM said in 2018 that it and Nusenda created the Center for Financial Capability to help students become financially successful. Terry Laudick, then Nusenda’s president and chief executive, said at the time that Nusenda had been working with UNM on financial success for 40 years. Nusenda now says its support for UNM totals more than $7 million, backing the financial capability center along with Rainforest Innovate, UNM Hospital initiatives and an on-campus branch. Nusenda defines financial capability as having the skills, knowledge, confidence and opportunity to manage money and resources effectively. That is the standard the center will have to meet in practice.