Interim Success

Well, Lucifer finally signed off on my proposal and I turned the paperwork in to the college just in the nick of time. The Dean told me that as long as I get my dissertation done on schedule and turn in the rest of my paperwork on time for the rest of time, I will have no problem graduating as scheduled next summer. Whew!

However, I need to get rid of Lucifer. He must go. I've already sent my proposal to another of our faculty (a newbie junior faculty member) who I will call The Ingenue. I'm not getting a good feeling that she'll join my committee. I sent the proposal and a nice email asking her to join but I haven't received even an acknowledgment. My best guess is that The Predator (another of our illustrious faculty) has discouraged her from serving on my committee and she just isn't sure how to deal with it. The Predator is out of town at the moment so she's probably waiting until he gets back to broach the subject. I think The Predator may have some influence, one, because he's her boss and two, because he had already mentioned to me that I probably shouldn't ask her since my research isn't her "area."

Here's the thing, though. My research is MY area and no one else's. It's actually quite novel (simple but in a very novel area of my field). No one on my committee, including Lucifer and The Predator, research in this particular area of our field. Lucifer didn't like that and reacted poorly but the bottom line is that we are encouraged to come up with novel research that will lead to us sustaining a research program once we go off and have our own academic labs. How are we supposed to do that if we continue doing our professors' research?

Nevermind. I am going to do everything in my power to avoid an academic job in research. In fact, if I can avoid asking those fools for letters of recommendation, that is exactly what I will do. I want no part of it if I can avoid it.

In the meantime, I am hoping that The Ingenue will come through. However, I'm not optimistic that will happen. I won't blame her, though. It's a very tough to deal with those creepers who comprise our program faculty and she's right under The Predator's thumb. I just wish she'd at least acknowledge that she received my email.