Laureate Education is in talks with a struggling college in New Mexico that could give the international company a second campus location in the United States and turn the College of Santa Fe into the latest private college to seek a deal with a for-profit higher-education company in hopes of resolving its financial troubles.

But the deal is not yet sealed.

On Wednesday the College of Santa Fe’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to form what it called a partnership with Laureate.

A Laureate spokeswoman said, however, that the deal was still tentative. “We are in discussions,” said the spokeswoman, Debra Epstein. She called them “exploratory conversations.”

According to an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican, a local newspaper, officials on both sides are discussing a plan under which Laureate would assume the college’s debt — the amount was not disclosed — and assist in marketing, branding, and recruiting more students. Ms. Epstein said she could not say whether the talks were a prelude to Laureate’s buying the college.

Faced with declining enrollments, Santa Fe has been cutting programs and staff members for about a year. It has also pushed to refocus its mission on the arts. Ms. Epstein said that such a mission could fill a niche for the Laureate network of universities worldwide.

If a deal were struck, it would be Laureate’s second domestic arrangement. In 2004, Laureate forged a deal with a culinary institution in Chicago, Kendall College. —Goldie Blumenstyk