On July 1, 1997, Carnesale was appointed chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles, a position he held until June 30, 2006. Some of Carnesale's Harvard colleagues saw his departure as "a terrible loss." Some at both Harvard and UCLA were concerned about his ability to understand a large public university system. His response: "I have enormous interest in all things public. I spent nine years teaching at a public university. In between I was in government. I spent my academic years at Harvard in the areas of public policy and administration."