NIU President John La Tourette will announce a new assistant for Government Relations later this week.

La Tourette is expected to announce Alan Voelker as the replacement for the departing Ken Beasley, who is leaving NIU this month.

La Tourette said he will make the official announcement of Beasley’s successor Thursday or Friday.

Voelker declined comment. “All I can say is that is something that would come from the president’s office,” he said.

Voelker is the chair of the curriculum and instruction department and was promoted to full professor in 1979. This fall he will have been at NIU for 20 years, sources indicate.

There is no word yet on who, if anyone, will take over as the C&I chair, but the relations position has been a full-time slot under Beasley.

Voelker’s pay in 1990-91 was $5,932 a month for a 12-month contract. Changes of position are approved by the Board of Regents.

Voelker received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin.

Beasley is departing NIU to become director of research at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. Butler is a private school with an enrollment of about 4,000.

Beasley joins the mass exodus of high-level administrators from NIU in recent months.

Tom Montiegel, former vice president of Development, left in May to take a job with the Chick Evans Scholarship Program.

Kendall Baker left the provost’s post to become the president of the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks.

Former Associate Provost Lou Jean Moyer retired after last semester ended.