Graduates Urged to Link Power, Ethics by Brown

Describing the people of the United States as an “aging, shrinking minority,” former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. urged UC Irvine business graduates Saturday to cooperate, not just compete, in the world market.

Business has “tremendous clout” and can affect the “environment, politics (and) the quality of life,” Brown said. As commencement speaker at UCI’s Graduate School of Management, Brown cautioned the 70 graduates to fuse that power with a sense of ethics and a commitment to the idea of lifelong education.

“There’s no doubt that we are intermeshed, dependent and very much a part of this world economy,” Brown told the audience of about 400.

Because of this relationship with the rest of the world, the United States should develop “an enlightened immigration policy,” Brown said. In an interview after his speech, he specifically criticized immigration legislation recently introduced by Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), describing it as a proposal that would limit “foreign talent” coming into the country.

The United States doesn’t really have a choice, Brown said. To stay ahead, he said, Americans need to adopt an underdog mentality instead of a superior one, and invent new forms of cooperation. Otherwise, “the mere fact of being in the lead sets in motion a certain retarding process,” he said.

Education would be a key element in the process of cooperation, Brown said. Americans need to “depend not so much on natural resources, but on the products of the human mind,” he said.

Education is especially important to a population whose median age is significantly older than that in many other countries, he said.

Brown also urged the graduates to work toward a foundation of ethics and virtue as they “strive and struggle” to earn money. They also should strive toward individual freedom, he said, “so you can operate without an authoritarian, tyrannical government.”

Reaction to Brown’s speech appeared favorable among the students, whom Assistant Dean Judy Rosener characterized as mostly conservatives. Even the parents in the audience, who “always heard he’s a little loony-flip,” enjoyed Brown’s comments, she said.

What Brown said was nothing new to the students, because they have learned in their classes about the impact of their future business dealings on public policy, Rosener said.

Graduate student Al Galvez said that Brown “basically commented on what we’ve been learning in school.” Galvez added that he enjoyed the speech, although he didn’t care for Brown’s policies while he was governor.

Mark Stelling, attending his sister’s graduation, said he, too, disagreed with many of Brown’s political views, but he said of the speech, “I thought it was good. Too bad he’s not a Republican.”

Earlier in the day, Chancellor Jack W. Peltason addressed the undergraduate commencement exercises at UCI.