Trip to IN - update

Several people has been asking about us coming back to IN so I thought I would post an update.

Jeff's thesis was submitted to his committee at the beginning of December and the committee was supposed to have it approved by December 19th. The offices at ND were closed from December 23-January 5th and we didn't hear anything from them before we left for Christmas. Once we got back to MD and the offices opened, Jeff emailed the ND secretary to find out the status of his approval. She said that only one of his committee members had turned in the form and that we are still waiting on the other two to approve his thesis. She did mention that if Jeff wanted to email the other two to find out the status that he should "tread lightly" as it was the holidays and they may have been traveling. So where does that leave us and what is the time line? As soon as the approves get turned in then, in theory they can start looking at dates for Jeff's defense. The grad school is supposed to find an outside chair which they are allowed up to 2 weeks to find the outside chair. If Jeff can find his own outside chair then the process can be sped up (which he has someone in mind that might be willing to help us out.) So basically once we hear back about the approvals he could be defending anytime in the next 2-4 weeks.

What does that mean for both of us coming to IN? Well depending on the date of the approval and subsequent defense date I may or may not be able to come. It may also depend on what day they set the defense. Jeff's classes start back on the 19th so if the defense is after then (which it probably will be since that is only a week from Monday) then he might have to fly to SB so he doesn't miss too many classes. If he flies my attendance may depend on the cost of tickets. However, if the date is too late in January or even early February I may not be able to come because I may be too far along to travel "smartly". Ultimately we just have to wait and see when the other two committee members decided to approve his paper. (I know it bothers me too that they have a deadline and yet don't have to keep it!! I was really hoping that we would be in SB before Jeff started teaching again so we would have the freedom of driving and staying a couple of days.)

I will keep you updated as we hear back from ND. Right now we are just playing the waiting game and it stinks!