President Barack Obama quoted Martin Luther King Jr. about the “fierce urgency of now” when he ran for president. In our country’s current situation, that phrase is pretty universally relevant.

As I’ve kept up with the early days of Obama’s presidency, I’m struck by the similarities between him and ASU President Michael Crow. Both share tremendous optimism for what their constituents can do. And both men are thinking in terms of huge ideas, on a scale almost unheard of at the university or national level. There is a shared ideology here that I think deserves respect, whether or not one agrees with Obama or Crow’s policies.

In a State Press article last year about President Crow’s tenure at ASU, I quoted a professor who described Crow’s worldview as, “The world is changing so fast, if we don’t act instantly, we’ll be left behind.”

While perhaps an exaggeration, the gist of that seems to be accurate: Much of the basis of the New American University seem to be based on the assumption that the status quo is not an option.

What the shared ideas behind Crow and Obama boil down to is this: We have to proactively address unprecedented challenges, like a worldwide economic crisis, climate change, an obsolete health-care system and a lagging educational system that is failing to compete on a global level. We need to initiate massive changes on an epic scale, right now.

For Obama, that means policies that look to transform American health care, radically rework economic regulation, and initiate a massive shift in America’s industries toward sustainable technologies, a national effort that he’s compared to the Manhattan Project.

When Crow arrived at ASU, he made a case for transforming this institution into a top university, completely rethinking the model for higher education. The “New American University” is a broad and complex term, but it seems to accept that mediocrity is unacceptable.

According to this model, ASU has to go absolutely above and beyond all expectations: embed itself among its surroundings to address local, state and national problems; promote prosperity and opportunity for the country; and while maintaining excellence, accept all qualified applicants.

Crow’s vision for a New American University has attracted plenty of controversy. In my opinion, his plan relied heavily on this country’s not facing the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression. As for criticism of Obama’s policies, I suggest reading the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal for some valid arguments.

But regardless of my opinions on Crow or Obama’s presidency, I appreciate the common theme here: This country needs to face serious problems right now, and we have no choice but to make a lot of radical, fast changes to get out of the messes we’re in.

For ASU, we need to anticipate and address upcoming problems, embrace emerging technologies and completely rethink the outdated university model. I’m all in favor of being risk-averse, but right now, it’s too risky not to move fast on a massive scale.

I’m obviously rooting for both presidents here. The risk that their ideas are misguided carries a lot of weight. But we can’t afford to think small.

Reach Matt at matt.culbertson@asu.edu.