At Elite French University, One Hurdle After Another

By D. D. Guttenplan. It may turn out to be a good vintage for French wine, but 2012 has been a terrible year for the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, the elite institute for political studies known as Sciences Po, which last week had its interim director removed by the French higher education minister, Geneviève Fioraso, who installed another candidate in his place.
In April, the school’s longtime director, Richard Descoings, was found dead in a New York hotel room. Officials ruled in May that he died of natural causes. Under Mr. Descoings’s leadership the school instituted a controversial affirmative action program to recruit students from disadvantaged backgrounds, opened six satellite campuses and turned a feeder school for the French civil service into an international powerhouse that drew 40 percent of its students from outside France. Read more...