February 2026 will mark the sixth month with an interim director for our campus. An offer for the position was first published on 21 July 2025, remaining available on the university’s recruitment portal and HR consultant Michael Page’s website until shortly after the end of the December exam season. Here follows a summary of the information that could be found in it:
The duties and responsibilities of the role are presented in three different ways. Firstly, the Campus Director is tasked with the supervision of a 27-people team, who collectively manage the day-to-day operations of the Reims campus, e.g. administrative procedures, budgeting, and human resources. A special mention is given to “ensuring the optimal functioning of the site and the security of the people and facilities.”
Secondly, on the educational aspect of the role, the Campus Director is expected to “ensure the on-campus implementation of the Collège Universitaire’s strategy, taking care of teaching quality and student monitoring.” This includes the rollout of the reformed undergraduate curriculum (which will be applicable to future 1As starting August 2026), and taking part in the general student admissions process.
The third and final component, titled “Campus standing and development”, covers tasks related to the representation of Sciences Po before so-called “institutional partners” – with specific mentions for the local press or lycées français abroad – and other departments within Sciences Po.
Candidates are expected to have completed a minimum level of education known in France as Bac+5 (for example, a Master’s degree), together with at least ten years of experience in a similar role, preferably in higher education. Other requirements include that candidates have a “sense of diplomacy,” proficiency in English and French, and excellent interpersonal skills.
In turn, the successful candidate will be entitled to a wide range of benefits including forty days of paid time off per year, the reimbursement of 55% of travel expenses (without specifying what trips would fall under this category), one day of remote work each week, and free sports lessons. The announcement does not include any information regarding potential salary bands for this role.
On 1 September 2025, after Crystal Cordell’s departure, Undergraduate College Executive Director Marie Rassat took over for the duration of the currently incomplete hiring process. Throughout the academic year, Mrs. Rassat has therefore acted as the main figurehead during the “Bloquons tout” and transport strikes, and a recent decision from the Conseil Départamental de la Marne, which will see its €600,000 yearly grant to Sciences Po’s parent institution, FNSP, gradually reduced and eventually eliminated by 2029, as part of widespread spending cuts across French government institutions.
Mrs. Rassat has been assisted by Deputy Campus Director Catherine Droszewski, who has maintained a more visible presence, both on campus and in students’ email inboxes (on 25 August 2025, it was Ms. Droszewski who gave the very first welcoming speech to the newly arrived 1As). However, the question remains as to whether this two-headed leadership will result in effective governance for what was once referred to as “the second campus of Sciences Po Paris” by Richard Descoigns, former President of Sciences Po.
On 31 July, on an email sent to the whole campus community, Crystal Cordell took pride on some of the goals that she had pursued during her term as Campus Director, notably “Revitalizing academic life […], opening our conferences to the public […], and promoting our pedagogical project both locally and internationally.”
Mrs. Cordell’s leadership was also questioned on several occasions, such as during the wave of anti-war protests across France following Israel’s response to the terrorist attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023, which led to a chaotic exam session in May 2024 and police intervention to clear a blockade of the campus entrance on 21 March 2025.
Jeanne Lazarus, the Dean of the Sciences Po Undergraduate College, declined to comment on the state of the hiring process when approached by the Sundial Press. She did, however, highlight her “full trust” on Mrs. Rassat while remarking that “the campus is functioning in the most normal way, in a calm and positive atmosphere […]. If [students] have any concerns or feedback regarding the campus’s operations, she and I are fully available to all students to discuss them.”
After Nathalie Jacquet (2010-2017), Tilman Turpin (2017-2021), and Crystal Cordell (2021-2025), the successful candidate will go on to become our fourth Campus Director. However, during the fifteen years that Sciences Po has been present in Reims, there has never been a time gap between Directors as wide as the current one, and while “uncertain” has been a common term used to describe Sciences Po leadership positions across the French media landscape, it is safe to say that, given how unpredictable many aspects of campus life can be, the last thing we all need is precisely more uncertainty.
This article was first published as part of the Sundial Press printed edition in Winter 2026.
Photo Credits: Wikipedia
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