Apr 4, 2012 6:25 AM EDT
Vague echoes of the Strauss-Kahn affair are unlikely to tarnish the
reputation of Richard Descoings, director of Sciences Po in Paris.
Found dead in a Manhattan hotel room Tuesday, he's considered a
possible suicide.
Print Email Comments (1) Once again, France awoke this morning to news
of a mysterious incident involving one of its more prominent citizens
in a New York City hotel. Richard Descoings, director of the Institute
of Political Studies in Paris, better known as Sciences Po, was found
dead in his room at the Michelangelo in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday
afternoon. He was in bed naked, and there were reports that alcohol
and drugs were present. Descoings's iPhone and laptop were discovered
on a landing below. The New York City police said they are treating
the incident as suspicious.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told reporters "we are waiting
for the medical examiner's report," but was careful to add that as yet
no evidence had been found of "criminality." According to law
enforcement sources, suicide has not been ruled out.
Inevitably, the incident raised echoes of the arrest last year of
Dominique Strauss-Kahn after he was accused of sexually assaulting a
maid at another Manhattan hotel. Those charges later were dropped, but
Strauss-Kahn—who was the head of the International Monetary Fund at
the time, and touted as the likely next president of France—has since
seen his political career buried under a mountain of scandalous
allegations. There is no real connection with the death of Descoings,
certainly, apart from the impression in Paris that Gotham is a risky
playground for the French elite.
In the case of Descoings, 53, the implication of early reports
suggesting one or two men had been in his room earlier threatened to
give a tabloid gloss to what would otherwise be mostly reverential
obituaries for the distinguished academic and civil servant. Scandal
"will not be the headline," said a source close to French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, who attended Sciences Po in the 1980s and often
consulted with Descoings about efforts to evolutionize, if not
revolutionize, higher learning in France.
The body of Richard Descoings (inset), is removed from the
Michelangelo Hotel near Times Square in New York, April 3, 2012, Chip
East, Reuters / Landov; inset: AFP / Getty Images
Police are investigating whether one man followed by a second man
visited Descoings and left after an hour or so, and if such a visit
might be tied to his death.
Descoings was in New York City to attend an education conference at
Columbia University. When he failed to show up Tuesday morning, his
colleagues called the hotel to see what had become of him.
Police are investigating whether one man followed by a second man
visited Descoings in the middle of the previous night, and left after
an hour or so, and if such a visit might be tied to his death.
But a hotel housekeeper said she heard Descoings snoring in his room
at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to a well-informed law
enforcement source. After the call from Columbia, hotel security
checked on him and found him sleeping but alive. He woke up briefly
with a grunt, then went back to sleep. But when Descoings failed to
check out at 12:30 p.m., according to this source, security checked on
him again 30 minutes later and found him apparently dead, naked, on
the bed. Emergency medical teams were called and tried unsuccessfully
to resuscitate Descoings, pulling him off the bed to work on him on
the floor.
Some friends of Descoings told detectives that he had been depressed.
It is because there were no visible signs of trauma that suicide is
being considered as a possible explanation pending further forensic
tests.
In Paris overnight, a statement by President Sarkozy paid homage to
"the exceptional career of a great servant of the State, who devoted
his entire life" to the cause of education: "In almost 16 years as the
head of 'Sciences Po,' he made of that venerable institution, which he
reformed profoundly, an establishment with a global reputation."
In fact, Descoings was one of his country's most controversial
educators. The grandes écoles, the most influential schools, are meant
to train a meritocratic elite, and have rigid admission standards.
(The most exclusive of all, the École Nationale d'Administration,
admits only about 100 students a year, many of whom go on to hold top
government jobs.) But Descoings, whose university admitted more than
1,000 students a year, initiated a policy early in the last decade
that embraced a handful of applicants each year from underprivileged
backgrounds—in effect, a French version of affirmative action.
"Ten years later, the face of his school has changed," Le Monde noted
in its online obituary for Descoings this morning. The number of
scholarship students has risen from 6 percent to 26 percent: "His
model has given ideas, aroused endless debates, but the grandes
écoles, too attached to their entrance exams, prefer to help high
school students prepare rather than exempt them."
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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