Two steps forward … I’ve been writing about the lack of economic diversity at top colleges for almost 15 years, and it’s sometimes tempting to become cynical. University leaders clearly want to be seen as caring about the issue. But year after year, many of them continue to enroll shockingly affluent student bodies — despite the large number of talented students from modest backgrounds.

Once in a while, though, there are signs of progress.

Yesterday, an arm of Michael Bloomberg’s foundation — which has made this issue one of its priorities — published some new data on economic diversity in higher education. The foundation has created a group of more than 100 public and private colleges that have vowed to enroll more lower-income students. The group is known as the American Talent Initiative, and each member school must have a graduation rate of at least 70 percent.

Over the past two years at the colleges in the initiative reporting data, the number of students receiving federal Pell Grants has risen to almost 218,000 from 210,000. (Pell Grants typically go to families from the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution.) The initiative has vowed to get this number to 260,000 by 2025 — which means it will need to pick up the pace in coming years.

Among the colleges that have made progress is the University of California, Irvine, which was already a leader and has become even more of one by increasing the number of transfers it takes from community colleges. Others increasing their economic diversity, according to the new report: the University of Illinois, the University of Iowa, Allegheny College, Davidson College, Princeton and Yale. For more, see Melissa Korn’s write-up in The Wall Street Journal. (The link requires a Journal subscription.)

I think it’s important to remember that this isn’t simply a matter of diversity. It’s a matter of fairness.

You can join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and Facebook. I am also writing a daily email newsletter and invite you to subscribe.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion).