Michele Forbes, who retired as LSU Law Registrar and Director of Student Academic Services on Sept. 30, 2020, after 36 years of service to LSU and the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, has been honored by LSU with the title of Director Emeritus.
Forbes also recently received the Distinguished Service Award from the Southern Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (SACRAO) for her career of service in the admissions and records profession.
Forbes began her career at LSU in 1984, when she joined the LSU Office of Admissions as a clerk, and she served in the office for approximately 15 years. In 1999, she joined the LSU Law staff as Director of Admissions and Student Affairs. Her early accomplishments at the Law Center included playing a pivotal role in the development and implementation of new admissions standards and processing to replace an admissions process that predated the era of electronic application systems. The process Forbes helped create continues to be used today, admitting a much more diverse and talented class of students based on factors beyond LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs.
In 2004, Forbes was appointed Registrar and Director of Student Affairs (later revised to Registrar and Director of Student Academic Services). In her role, Forbes served as the steward of student records and was vital to LSU Law’s accreditation efforts. She played a key leadership role in the development of student learning outcomes and the assessment and reporting of those outcomes to both regional and discipline-specific accreditors, including the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools-Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC) and the American Bar Association (ABA).
Forbes was an integral part of the LSU Law leadership team for more than 20 years, spearheading much of the innovation that has improved admissions and student services. She has leveraged her vast institutional knowledge and dedication to help steer the Paul M. Hebert Law Center through several major catastrophic events that impacted LSU Law and its students, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the 2016 floods in Baton Rouge, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic.
LSU reserves the emeritus rank for employees who have served in their positions for at least 10 years at retirement and have “made outstanding contributions to the University in either the field of scholarship or public service.” It is among the highest honors a retiring employee can receive at the university.
“Michele is a selfless servant who truly embodies the spirit of LSU and LSU Law, and she is most deserving of the great honor of retiring as Director Emeritus,” said LSU Law Interim Dean Lee Ann Wheelis Lockridge. “Michele was an effective innovator and collaborator with chancellors, deans, faculty, and staff, but she dedicated her career to providing excellent and efficient services to the most important people on our campus — our students. Over the course of her distinguished career, she provided direct services to thousands of students and made significant institutional improvements that benefitted many thousands more.”
The SACRAO Distinguished Service Award is a highly selective and rarely bestowed honor reserved for association members “whose contributions have been so extraordinary as to warrant special recognition.”
SACRAO is a non-profit organization whose purposes are to provide for the dissemination of information and the interchange of ideas or problems of common interest; contribute to the advancement of higher education in its fullest and broadest implication; foster a friendly spirit of unity and cooperation among its members; and function as a unifying and coordinating agency among the separate state organizations of admissions officers and registrars.
Forbes has been an active member of SACRAO as well as the Louisiana and American chapters of the association for decades. Among her service to SACRAO, she served on many standing and program committees, including Auditing, Recognition and Awards, Resolutions, Nominations and Elections, Academic Calendars, Scheduling and Publications, Local Agreements, and International, Professional, and Graduate Admissions. She also served on the Executive Committee as VP for Program and Evaluation, VP for State/Regional and Members, VP for Professional Development, VP for Record and Registration, and as Newsletter Editor in the early 1990s.
