Student loans, housing and ever-increasing inflation are just a few of the fiscal challenges facing college students nationwide, and a new UNLV initiative has aimed itself at helping students weather the financial storm.
UNLV unveiled the Institute for Financial Literacy and Wellness, as well as a slew of related academic initiatives, to combat a lack of financial preparedness among younger generations, teach students how to manage their money responsibly and ultimately invest in the “third stool” of their health—the financial—in addition to the mental and physical.
“Financial health is an inescapable element of life,” said Daniel Chi, chair of the UNLV Lee Business School’s finance department. “We cannot avoid it even if we want to. … So, we really want to emphasize the essentiality of financial health and to make the third leg of the stool also really strong, so we have a fulfilling life.”
The university has begun offering two financial literacy courses, including one dedicated to financial independence and a second dedicated to financial success. Both courses are completely packed, with more than 700 students enrolled between them.
A potential third class would look at financial risks, said Darwin Hopwood, a UNLV lecturer, Commercial Banking Advisory Board faculty fellow and co-director of the Institute for Financial Literacy and Wellness.
“So, we’re putting in academic content to inform our students about the major areas that deal with their personal finances and how to achieve their financial goals,” Hopwood said.
The institute will offer a plethora of services, including career and budget planning for students, outreach to faculty, staff and alumni, education on retirement finances or student-loan forgiveness, individual financial counseling and more.
Many students have different financial backgrounds, and the institute will be able to respond accordingly with the appropriate financial advice, Hopwood said. He pointed to first-generation students who may not have a family member to guide them through college financially, as well as several students at UNLV who may experience homelessness while pursuing their education.
“So financial counseling for that person starts from someplace different than someone who’s a second-generation student coming on campus and wants to know a little bit more about investments, for instance,” Hopwood said. “So, if we can do some one-on-one counseling, in that we can identify needs, and that helps us develop ways we might be able to help or guide them to needed resources.”
But financial literacy doesn’t have to—and shouldn’t—start in college, Hopwood said. So, UNLV is also doing outreach to the Clark County School District and local education programs, including by offering a couple of dual-credit courses to high school students.
“I just think it’s really important we get out there,” he said of the institute. “We make sure people have information and awareness of tools that are available to them to help them achieve their financial goals. The sooner they learn habits like budgeting … the better. It’ll serve them over their lifetime to prepare for things like retirement.”
The response from students has been so great that UNLV will increase the number of sections of its financial-literacy courses to 15 next semester—for an estimated 900 students—and 20 sections the following semester—for an estimated 1,200 students, Hopwood said.
“We want to seize the momentum and ramp up the supply to the students,” said Chi, who added that students at UNLV have displayed “tremendous interest” in financial literacy. “We want to have enough sections that every student that wants to be in this course … can.”
There’s a dire need for financial literacy across the board, Hopwood said.
“We just feel like there’s just a lot of good we can do,” he said. “We’re excited to do it. And hopefully, we’ll be able to gather the resources from the community across campus and be able to do a good job doing it.”
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