Richard Descoings Found Dead in Manhattan Hotel Jacky Naegelen/Reuters A tribute for Richard Descoings at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, where he was the director. He was found dead this week in a New York City hotel. The leader of a prestigious university in France was found dead on Tuesday in a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the police said. The man, Richard Descoings, the director of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, better known as Sciences Po Paris, had been in New York to attend a conference of university presidents. Investigators "haven't determined that there was foul play" in the death, said Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department's chief spokesman. Mr. Descoings, 53,was discovered on the bed in his room at the Michelangelo hotel, at 152 West 51st Street. After people at the conference expressed concern that Mr. Descoings had not shown up on Tuesday morning, hotel security workers went to his room to check on him about 10:50 a.m., Mr. Browne said. They found him alive and sleeping. They returned to his room just before 1:00 p.m. and found Mr. Descoings unresponsive. Emergency medical workers were summoned and pronounced him dead after attempting to revive him, Mr. Browne said. Police investigators found no sign of trauma on Mr. Descoings's body nor any evidence of a struggle, Mr. Browne said. An autopsy was being conducted on Wednesday, the authorities said; preliminary results were expected to be made public by the end of the day. A cellphone and laptop belonging to Mr. Descoings were found on an exterior landing that juts out from the hotel's third floor. They had apparently been thrown from a window in Mr. Descoings's room, Mr. Browne said. Mr. Descoings presided over the transformation of Sciences Po from a feeder school for the French elite into an institution with an international reputation. He introduced an affirmative-action program for students from poorer areas. He imposed both high tuition fees and generous scholarships, which he described as "redistribution within the student body." On Wednesday morning, students and faculty observed a minute of silence in the institute's garden on the Rue Saint-Guillaume. "He was an immensely charismatic figure who commanded a lot of affection," said Peter Gumbel, director of the school's Center for American Studies.