The annual meeting of the American Talent Initiative (ATI) will take place next week. It is a gathering of member college presidents with leaders from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, and Ithaka S+R. Their collective goal is to enroll and graduate more low- and middle-income students from the nation’s best colleges and universities.

It is one of the few initiatives whose members comprise large, small, public, and independent institutions. To qualify for membership, a school must have a graduation rate of at least 70%. Of the 355 colleges and universities who meet that threshold, about 135 are currently members. These institutions have committed to a set of enrollment and graduation goals, and they have agreed to share data with each other with the hope of improving the outcomes of all members.

A number of presidents of 55 independent liberal arts colleges in ATI, especially those without need-blind admissions, have indicated that admitting additional low-income students will require significant fundraising to offset the lost revenue associated with “displacing” students who are high-net-revenue.

Fundraising to support these talented and deserving students should be a priority for all of our institutions, but progress toward enrolling more low-income can be made more immediately at any institution that has some unfilled capacity and applicants who would be academically successful, but didn’t make the financial cut to form the budgeted class.

Once an institution has successfully built its incoming class, it could choose to supplement that group with an additional cohort of Pell-eligible students. The enrollment team would restrict those additional slots to low-income students as an add-on.

With an add-on group of 15 students, the incremental increase in the campus population will have a minimal impact on fixed costs (facilities and general operations), and the Pell funding of each year’s cohort would be approximately $110,000, which can appreciably offset some of the incremental costs associated with the increase in enrollment.

Some students could also be eligible for state-funded, need-based aid and possible external private scholarships that would further supplement increased costs. Each institution can determine if a sustainable amount of loans would be part of the calculus for their campus program.

At institutions where a portion of institutional aid is unfunded, this would be an expansion of that practice to an additional group of students. For institutions where all institutional aid has been funded in the past, this initiative would be an “above the line” program.

An institution of 2,000 students that admits an additional 15 Pell-eligible students each year, will increase the portion of its students who are low-income by 3% over four years, which would be meaningful progress while the aforementioned fundraising is underway.

Qualifying institutions who are not members of ATI should consider joining. For all high-performing institutions, adding 15 more low-income students each year is a good start toward a noble goal.