US police probe French academic’s final hours

New York police were Wednesday attempting to piece together the final hours of the director of one of France’s most elite colleges, as a medical examiner’s report shed no clues on the cause of death.

The mysterious demise of Richard Descoings, 53, whose naked body was found in his Manhattan hotel room Tuesday, sparked emotional tributes from students, politicians and fellow academics, who hailed him as a “visionary” and “idol.”

The married 53-year-old headed the highly respected Paris Institute of Political Studies — “Sciences-Po” — and was in New York for a conference but he failed to show up, prompting a search and an eventual discovery of his body.

Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office, said an autopsy performed Wednesday was “inconclusive.”

“We have to do further toxicology testing and tissue testing” to determine the cause of death, she said.

“That’s probably going to take about another 10 days to two weeks.”

Police were investigating after the academic’s body was found on the bed in room 723 at the Michelangelo Hotel but said there was no evidence of foul play, despite initial reports suggesting otherwise.

“The hotel had checked earlier in the morning at nine (o’clock), and he was asleep, at one he was found dead,” said deputy police commissioner Paul Browne late Tuesday.

Descoings had been attending a meeting of the heads of major universities under the auspice of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The Frenchman was due to meet four colleagues in the hotel at 9:00 am, but when he failed to show, they assumed he had left without them.

The tabloid New York Post, citing police sources, said empty bottles of anti-depressants and alcohol had been found at the scene, and the newspaper also reported that two men had earlier visited the academic’s room.

Descoings’s wife Nadia was due to arrive in New York on Wednesday along with her two children from a previous marriage. The couple did not have any children of their own.

Descoings drew criticism earlier this year when it emerged that he earned a net salary of 24,000 euros ($32,000) a month with a variable bonus on top, while most university heads in France are paid around 4,500 euros a month.

In an interview with Liberation newspaper in which he defended his salary, Descoings also complained he had been “forcibly outed” by the newspaper Le Monde, saying: “I do not see what my supposed homosexuality has to do with anything.”

Guillaume Pepy, a close friend of Descoings and the president of the French national rail authority SNCF, has been asked by Descoings’s wife to travel to New York from Montreal, sources close to the family told AFP.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the country’s Education Minister Luc Chatel led the tributes.

Sarkozy — who studied at Sciences-Po but failed to graduate — praised Descoings’s “exceptional career,” saying in a statement that the academic had “devoted his whole life to his chosen cause… education.”

Chatel said France had “lost a visionary spirit” who “revolutionized our higher education.”

At the Paris school, hundreds of students and teachers gathered for a tribute that included a moment of silence and speeches recalling the man known as “Richie.”

Assistant director Herve Cres said Descoings was able to transform the institution “into a vibrant international community.”

“He was extraordinarily popular,” said Etienne Wasmer, an economics professor.

“Richie was part idol, part myth, but he remained accessible,” said first-year student Yann Kerhoas.

Descoings’ innovation was to implement an equal opportunities program, in partnership with schools in working-class neighborhoods, to provide better opportunities for France’s underprivileged black and Arab minorities.

Some in France, however, saw Descoings’s special admissions track as an affront to principles of equality for all, regardless of background.

During four terms at the helm, Descoings transformed Sciences-Po, boosting student numbers from 4,500 to 10,000, setting up six campuses in the provinces and increasing the number of foreign students.