Following the waves of complaints crashing into Financial Aid, Director Corrine Soltis acknowledged the frustration with the department, and internal policies have been changed, effective immediately. 

This acknowledgement has sparked joy and inspiration across faculty and staff. The effort to instigate change in the department has been an ongoing and long process, supported by the faculty who advocated to their students, the staff that supported logistics, and the students who spoke up in surveys, listening sessions, and discussions on campus. 

While the department may or may not have realized the challenges their shortfalls were causing, a mirror was held up to them, and it was only after seeing the fire underneath did change occur. The scales were tipped in favor of reform after last week’s ThunderWord article covering the issues with the Financial Aid department.

One joyous faculty member wrote, “Y’all, it feels like we actually did something!!!” Going into Thanksgiving Break, Highline has much gratitude for the efforts across campus.

A calendar of information sessions were sent out to faculty and staff, along with zoom links to increase accessibility. Some of these “Lunch and Learn” sessions offered multiple time slots to work around instructional schedules. 

The invites were followed by a statement from Director Soltis in a response to the disruption across campus lately. She stated, “I have met with my leadership team to focus specifically on how the Financial Aid department can take immediate steps to improve student access and support.” 

The statement stated, “The Financial Aid team acknowledges that we must improve our customer service with students, staff, and faculty. Our commitment effective immediately: Students deserve culturally responsive, customer focused service, and the Financial Aid Office is committed to training and implementation of significant changes to our customer service delivery…We have just concluded 6 weeks of customer service training, and will now partner with outside specialists with a focus on culturally responsive, high traffic customer service training.” 

The largest sum of complaints were related to response times. In many cases, it took nearly three weeks for a student to receive a response after directly contacting the office. The Financial Aid department pledged to cut that wait time to three business days, with an ongoing average wait-time of one day, according to Director Soltis’ statement. 

The ThunderWord double-checked the validity of this statement. One anonymous student who has been struggling with reaching the financial aid department since August has just recently been receiving active responses from financial aid officers, showing an immediate improvement with communication. 

Accessible appointments are also being increased, with the department nearly quadrupling their weekly appointment hours and refocusing on lowering wait times during walk-in hours. 

Faculty should now have an easier stream of information when it comes to advising students on financial aid. Advised by the Assistant Attorney General for Highline College, there no longer needs to be additional information request forms, streamlining the flow of information when it comes to a student’s aid and faculty advising. 

The meeting of the Financial Aid Advisory Council took place on Monday, headed by Associate Dean of Student Funding Services Loyal Allen Jr. and Director Beth Carter. The ThunderWord awaits a response from the Council concerning that meeting as attendance was limited to committee members. 

Director Soltis stated, “This committee will guide both our near-term adjustments and our longer-term process improvements. [They] will play a key role in shaping how we move forward together. I want to express my appreciation to all members of the Financial Aid Advisory Committee for their commitment to this important work and for helping ensure that our students receive the level of support they deserve.” 

The Committee sent the ThunderWord the following statement: 

“Hello Highline College Community! We recognize that the work of the Financial Aid Advisory Committee is of great interest to everyone on campus, and we strive to maintain transparency throughout this process. The Financial Aid Advisory Committee is dedicated to responding to long term issues around policies, processes, and communications from the Financial Aid office. We will be meeting monthly through December 2026.

The Committee has several areas of focus. We have a January 31, 2026 deadline for two specific goals: (1) reviewing the Satisfactory Academic Process (SAP) Policy, including the processes associated with SAP and how academic plans are shared as part of that process, and (2) reviewing the regulations around data sharing to increase collaboration across campus. Beyond January, we have longer term goals of establishing more equitable and student-focused policies and procedures for the Financial Aid office. This means reviewing current workflow processes in detail, researching peer institutions to understand best practices in Financial Aid, and applying what we learn to the Highline context. After we complete the background research portion of the work, we will set monthly progress benchmarks in a format visible to everyone on campus.

The first meeting of the Committee was held on November 24, 2025, and included time for the Financial Aid team to share their current work and the changes and improvements that are already in progress. Between now and the next meeting on December 15, 2025 we are researching peer institutions and best practices in financial aid, conducting detailed informational interviews with the members of Financial Aid staff, and establishing an organized and transparent way for this Committee to share our progress with the campus.

We are also actively seeking a student to join the Committee. Students interested in joining the Committee should contact Juli Hammond jhammond@highline.edu or Izzy Wroblewski iwroblewski@highline.edu for more information.”

The Financial Aid department is a team of around a dozen employees, responsible for the funding of thousands of students. The effort to make the financial aid process a collaborative process across administrators and faculty will be ongoing as continued training takes place. 

In a larger effort to improve both transparency and accountability, Acting President Jamilyn Penn and Executive Cabinet are launching a series of “Listening Sessions” for faculty and staff to communicate directly with leadership. There are 10 of these sessions taking place next week, with each member of the Executive Cabinet sponsoring at least a single session.

Fall quarter concludes in two weeks, allowing the department time before winter quarter to adjust further to internal policies. 

**Mavrie has been serving as editor for the ThunderWord since 2024. She is also the founding president of Highline’s Non-fiction Writers Circle.**