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.

Hannah Choi '01, one of five undergraduates who served on the student search committee, said the new director will hold the post in the long term, unlike Simpson, who was asked to be a "transitional director."

Choi added that Simpson, who assumed his post in January 1998, then decided to stay on for two years, but has now decided to hand over the reins of the organization.

"He's decided that it's time for him to move on," Choi said.

Search committee students, who began their work on finding a new director for the IOP in December, said that they do not know who the new director is going to be.

"The appointment hasn't been made yet," said Trevor D. Dryer '00. "We frankly don't know right now."

The twice-yearly meeting of the Student Advisory Committee and the Senior Advisory Committee of the IOP will be held today.