He’s No Longer a ‘Harvard Guy’

He’s been in his job all of four weeks, but UCLA Chancellor Albert Carnesale is calling the Westwood campus home--literally. Though currently residing in a nearby hotel, the 61-year-old former Harvard provost will soon move to the official university residence off Sunset Boulevard. Built in 1929, the Florentine-style, three-bedroom home has been uninhabited since 1991, when former Chancellor Charles E. Young and his wife, Sue, moved out because of seismic damage. But retrofitting is now underway to make it safe. And, in comments during a lunch with editors and reporters from The Times, Carnesale said his physical presence on the campus will send an important message.

It’s worth noting that it’s a lovely house. So it’s a wonderful place in which to live, for starters. I don’t view this as a sacrifice. I thought it was particularly important coming from the outside. I’m not some guy who’s here from Harvard. It’s not ‘a Harvard guy at UCLA.’ I’m a UCLA guy. And one of the best ways I could think of to demonstrate that is to immerse myself in the community, both literally and figuratively. It will be helpful symbolically and also in terms of entertaining. If you live far away, if you want to have students over, it’s not as if they can jump on the T [the Boston subway]. And there is a big difference between having events at the university residence at which nobody lives and the university residence that really is the chancellor’s home. There’s much more of a people connection to the place and to the person. So it’ll be a nice place to live. And, I can walk to work.