Every Saturday during sixth grade, Charles Lee Isbell Jr. would walk to the library, check out 10 books, take them home to read and repeat the process the following weekend.
Most of the books the University’s new chancellor borrowed were science fiction, the one genre that has consistently remained his favorite throughout his life. Now, at 56, that love has transformed itself into a collection of 22,617 individual comic books.
“I don’t know how I fell into it,” Isbell said. “I don’t know why I fell into it. It is my entire life. I’ve just always loved it.”
Starting with Robert A. Heinlein’s work at 11 years old, Isbell has moved through multitudes of science fiction books, landing him on his current read — “Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me” by Django Wexler.
Isbell’s love for all things speculative and scientific translates into his professional life too. After graduating in 1990 from Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in information and computer science, he committed his career to research and reform in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
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Isbell pursued his PhD at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory before returning to Georgia as a faculty member. There, he focused on combining a passion for accessibility in education with his research in computer learning.
“When I wake up in the morning and I think about my job, I think about why I’m in education,” Isbell said. “What I’m passionate about is access. About democratizing access to education (and) access to tools that allow people to be productive and self-actualize. That’s what I care about.”
The University defines a chancellor as “the chief executive officer of the campus.”
To Isbell, however, being a chancellor is more than that.
“A chancellor has to build a team that is dedicated to the underlying strategic vision and to the mission of the organization,” Isbell said.
While Chancellor Isbell fulfills that role during the workday, after hours, he’s his own individual.
“One of my colleagues said that one of the problems with these jobs is that you’re an abstraction,” Isbell said. “When you’re an abstraction, people can say anything they want to about you and do anything to you because you’re not real. Of course, we are not abstractions. We are human beings with human stories, and I think it’s actually important for people to understand that about everyone, not just about me or anyone in a position like this.”
To Isbell, being chancellor isn’t only about running the University; he compared his job to being the mayor of a town, a leader who deals with a wide variety of parties connected around something bigger than themselves.
While his primary concerns are those affiliated with the University — from students to faculty to alumni — Isbell emphasized the importance of understanding those who see themselves as part of the larger municipality of the University.
“A lot of this role is about building those connections, understanding what the various stakeholders and constituencies are interested in and trying to listen and to incorporate their experiences, their needs and their goals into the mission of the University,” Isbell said. “It’s a big, complicated organism.”
Beyond serving the University, Isbell acknowledged his consistent commitment to understanding its role within the surrounding Champaign-Urbana community.
“I want this university to be a member of the community, both as an organization and all the people who are in it,” Isbell said. “You’re not here to just step in, be an economic engine … you have to be a part of the social fabric and the life of the university.”
Isbell wears many hats, and his enthusiasm for the things he cares about translates into another important realm of his life: racquetball and ultimate frisbee.
Besides going to class and studying during his undergraduate years at Georgia Tech, Isbell could often be found playing racquetball on the courts, something he continues to do today. He also plays ultimate frisbee every Sunday out on the University’s fields, a weekly engagement he’s taken to every new place he’s called home.
“The number one rule of ultimate is spirit of the game, and I love that,” Isbell said. “It’s a commitment to thinking about the game as something that involves a bunch of human beings doing something together. I love it.”
From encouraging everyone to read the “Wonder Woman” comics to his love for ultimate frisbee, Isbell frequently turns back to the topic of community. On a greater scale, he expressed a desire to continue pushing that community forward during his time at the University.
“I want it to be big, and I want to know that we touch tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of million people — not just 10 or 20,” Isbell said. “Even if the only thing you can do in a given day is touch a single person, that’s a win. But when you’re an institute this big with the mission that we have, you should be able to touch thousands and thousands every day. And I’m really passionate about creating the opportunities for that.”
