The Institute of Politics (IOP) is expected to name its first full-time director of the new millennium today, several sources closely involved with the search process confirmed yesterday.

Two separate search committees have been working for several months to find a replacement for current director Alan K. Simpson, a former three-term Republican senator from Wyoming.

The two committees, one student-led and the other composed in part of faculty and administrators, submitted their separate recommendations to Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr., with whom the final decision resides.

Nye also has received the recommendation of the IOP's Senior Advisory Committee.

Nye was in Japan last night and unavailable for comment.

According to a source close to Simpson, the current director has speculated that the new director will be David H. Pryor, a former Democratic senator from Arkansas who was an IOP fellow last year.

Pryor, 66, is a political moderate who served in Congress for almost 30 years, first in the House of Representatives and then for three terms in the Senate. He also worked as an attorney and a small-town newspaper publisher.

Simpson has access to lists of candidates for the position, but has no formal role in the decision making process.