--- description: Should we pay college athletes, the real reason Rust Belt jobs disappeared and more. title: We Should Pay College Athletes 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 * [Five Best Ideas](/tag/five-best-ideas/) ## Five Best Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # We Should Pay College Athletes by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 4, 2017 4:00 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 4, 2017 4:00 PM CUT **1\.** [**In the shadow of the Final Four: Should we pay college athletes?**](http://www.ebony.com/news-views/ncaa-championship-compensating-players?curator=SportsREDEF#axzz4dCoT92Le "undefined") By David Canton in _Ebony_ **2\.** [**Forget coal, robots and offshoring. This is the real reason Rust Belt jobs disappeared.**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/04/04/heres-the-real-rust-belt-jobs-problem-and-its-not-offshoring-or-automation/ "undefined") By Josh Pacewicz and Stephanie Lee Mudge in the _Washington Post_ **3\.** [**With millions facing water scarcity, this graphene sieve will help by making seawater drinkable.**](http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/graphene-sieve-turns-seawater-into-drinking-water/ "undefined") By the _University of Manchester_ **4\.** [**Will this micropayment service finally get you — and everyone — using bitcoin?**](https://qz.com/948260/kim-dotcoms-micropayments-service-bitcache-could-be-bitcoins-killer-app/ "undefined") By Joon Ian Wong in _Quartz_ **5\.** [**There are millions of tons of plastic floating in the ocean. Here’s how to turn it into fuel.**](https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2017/april/ridding-the-oceans-of-plastics-by-turning-the-waste-into-valuable-fuel.html "undefined") By the _American Chemistry Society_  [_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/4724598/we-should-pay-college-athletes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4724598/we-should-pay-college-athletes/"},"headline":"We Should Pay College Athletes","datePublished":"2017-04-04T16:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:57.423Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4724598/we-should-pay-college-athletes/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Jobs","Innovation","Bitcoin","Water","Ocean"],"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/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4724598/we-should-pay-college-athletes/","name":"We Should Pay College Athletes"}}]}] ```