--- description: Public universities must do more for low-income students, geopolitics of Asia, funding domestic violence research, and closing the education gap. title: These Are Today's Best Ideas image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Innovation](/tag/innovation/) ## Innovation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 16 by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 16, 2014 4:01 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 16, 2014 4:01 PM CUT **1\.** [**America can offset China’s rising power and Russia’s influence in Asia by strengthening its relationship with India.**](http://nationalinterest.org/feature/china-the-rise-america-must-woo-india-11275 "undefined") By Paul J. Leaf in the National Interest **2\.** [**MIT moms challenge engineers and students to pitch ways to improve breast pumps in a ‘hackathon.’**](http://www.boston.com/health/2014/09/14/the-mom-behind-mit-breast-pumping-hackathon/HeQ0CFCunC0PIhxxG3O4yI/story.html "undefined") By Katie Levingston in Boston.com **3\.** [**College is disproportionately off limits to poor and minority students. Here are some critical steps to close that gap.**](http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/higher-education/report/2014/09/09/96689/how-public-universities-can-promote-access-and-success-for-all-students/ "undefined") By Antoinette Flores at the Center for American Progress **4\.** [**State governments should stop paying off businesses to ‘create jobs.’ The tax incentives and other giveaways are a waste.**](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-florida-government-incentives-to-businesses-20140916-story.html "undefined") By Richard Florida in the Los Angeles Times **5\.** [**One way the NFL can address the mishandling of domestic violence by its players: paying to rebuild our nation’s depleted support system for survivors of abuse.**](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119455/nfl-domestic-violence-league-should-fund-research-help-victims "undefined") By Jonathan Cohn in the New Republic  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3386929/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-16/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3386929/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-16/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 16","datePublished":"2014-09-16T16:01:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:43:03.669Z","description":"Public universities must do more for low-income students, geopolitics of Asia, funding domestic violence research, and closing the education gap.","url":"https://time.com/3386929/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-16/","keywords":["Innovation","Education","College","India","low-income","China","NFL","Government","America","MIT","domestic violence","minority","Geopolitics"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3386929/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-16/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 16"}}]}] ```