Carnesale is a great leader, colleague
Al Carnesale and I became chancellors at around the same time
““ recruiting him from Harvard was a real coup for the
University of California system, and there was tremendous
excitement about his arrival ““ so we learned the ropes
together, and we became friends and allies, even when our campuses
were in fierce competition for the California Institutes for
Science and Innovation.
Al is a wonderful colleague. He has great poise and a terrific
sense of humor. When pressures build, as often happens at a public
university, Al keeps things in perspective and helps everyone else
stay grounded. He also is the most analytical person I know. There
is a familiar pattern that happens time and again when the Council
of Chancellors meets.
When we grapple with a complex or difficult subject, the
chancellors debate all sides of the issue, and sometimes we reach a
cacophony. Al will hear us out, and then at some point, he will
speak up and the rest of us will stop to listen.
Invariably, Al brings it all down to the essential point and
clarifies the issues in a way that leads us to a decision. He is
simply amazing, and I am really going to miss him.
Robert Dynes UC president
Ability to simplify issues shows clear
authority
Members of the UCLA community are familiar with the multitude of
contributions Al Carnesale has made to the improvement and quality
of UCLA ““ the recruitment of outstanding new faculty, the
successful efforts at bringing to the campus an outstanding and
diverse group of students, and the enormously successful capital
campaign he directed on behalf of the campus, one of the largest in
America.
But they may be less aware of the important role he played in
the broader policy issues that confronted the UC and higher
education generally over the last nine years.
Al Carnesale and I had the good fortune to become chancellors on
the same day; we both came from outside of the university, so we
carried none of the history of competition and jealousy that have,
from time to time, plagued the relationship between Berkeley and
UCLA.
We conferred and collaborated often on many issues (some perhaps
thought we conspired!) that confronted the university. His counsel
was always wise and direct; he has a razor-sharp analytical mind
and a gift for expressing it.
At the meetings of chancellors, he was always able to cut
through the complex issues to state clearly and concisely what
stood at the heart of the problem and what principles were at
stake. He was candid and direct and his authority is derived from
his unimpeachable integrity as well as his intelligence.
In the larger academic community, for example, at the
semi-annual meetings of the Association of American Universities,
he exhibited these same qualities, and thus was, and was seen as, a
national leader among university presidents and chancellors.
UCLA has been extremely fortunate to have had Al Carnesale as
its chancellor; and I consider myself extremely fortunate to have
him as a colleague and friend.
Robert Berdahl Former UC Berkeley
chancellor
Chancellor’s practicality, perspective will be
missed
Chancellor Carnesale’s departure is a great loss not only
for UCLA, but for the entire UC system. As one of our most senior
chancellors, Carnesale brought well-reasoned perspectives and a
depth of knowledge to the Board of Regents that will surely be
missed. During my two years with the board, I met regularly with
the chancellor.
In our meetings I was always struck by Carnesale’s ability
to articulate complex, and often controversial, policy issues in a
concise and pragmatic fashion. His honest appraisal of the
multifaceted issues I brought to him sometimes differed from my own
interpretation, yet I always found his perspective to be of
tremendous value.
Based on my work as the UC student regent, I can say with
certainty that Carnesale is a man of great integrity whose
leadership we at UCLA have been fortunate to have for the past nine
years.
Jodi Anderson 2004-2005 student regent