How to approach my advisor who may leave the university

[M.A.]

Hello.

I am 2nd year of PhD student in engineering. My advisor may leave the university for her family issue. So far she did not tell us (students) anything about it. But I came to realize this during a conversation with one senior graduate student who is now taking care of the course which was initially taught by my advisors husband. He (my advisor's husband) started working at another  state since last month and he left their two kids for my advisor to take care. I have very strong feeling that she is going to leave the university.
 
The reason why I say she is going to leave are:

(a) she joined the university  as assistant  professor almost two years ago, there are still 3 more years to get tenure. This 3 years of time is long and it is going to be very hard for her since she has to take care two kids at the same time she has to put good effort on research.

(b) even if she stayed for another 3 years, I think her family would be messed up. And I believe she is not going to take this risk.

(c) Another sign of her leaving from the university is that she changed her mind and refused to take another student who wanted to switch into our lab. But initially she agreed to take that student.

I figured out I have 4 options:
(1) find another advisor
(2) go to the new university if she can find a position where her husband is working now (of course if she is willing to negotiate it with the new university for me).
(3) go through whole application process again
(4) switch to another campus and continue there (I don't know if this is possible)

• As for option (1), I have a advisor in mind but this year he recruited 3 new grad students. Not sure if he can accept me or not. In addition I found that once a student switched the lab the new advisor would look at the student with different eye as if he is giving a big favor and advisors.
• option (2), I don't know what her plan is.
•  option (3), I don't want to go through new application. For one I don't want my effort I have put so far in my PhD to be evaporated, for two I am international student and the process is really complicated. 
• option(4), I like this option but I don't know if it works and how it works.

 I hope she talks about her plan soon with the students. This way we can have plenty of time discuss and figure out our future. I don't know when she is going to talk about it. I have thought about breaking the ice, but at the same time I feel it is really awkward for me  to ask what she is going to do next.

What am I supposed to do?

 

[serenade]

This is a tough situation. I think it depends on what kind of relationship you have with you advisor. To some advisors, asking about their future plans for staying at the university might not be a big deal. To others, it might seem like an invasive question. Only you can judge how your advisor might respond. If you think they might be fine with you asking, you could ask in general terms, i.e. have a meeting to discuss your own future acdemic plan/goals and ask for advice. For example, if you say "I'd like to defend my dissertation proposal in spring of semester X; do you think that is feasible?" that might prompt your advisor to be forthright with you about their own plans. If, however, you think your advisor would respond negatively to you even asking those kinds of questions, I suppose the only answer is to keep working and trust that if your advisor were leaving and wanted you to know, she would tell you. I don't know the situation, but it could be at least possible that she's planning on staying regardless. A tough situation with a lot of unknowns. 

[M.A.]

On 12/3/2016 at 7:20 AM, serenade said:

This is a tough situation. I think it depends on what kind of relationship you have with you advisor. To some advisors, asking about their future plans for staying at the university might not be a big deal. To others, it might seem like an invasive question. Only you can judge how your advisor might respond. If you think they might be fine with you asking, you could ask in general terms, i.e. have a meeting to discuss your own future acdemic plan/goals and ask for advice. For example, if you say "I'd like to defend my dissertation proposal in spring of semester X; do you think that is feasible?" that might prompt your advisor to be forthright with you about their own plans. If, however, you think your advisor would respond negatively to you even asking those kinds of questions, I suppose the only answer is to keep working and trust that if your advisor were leaving and wanted you to know, she would tell you. I don't know the situation, but it could be at least possible that she's planning on staying regardless. A tough situation with a lot of unknowns. 

Thank you for your advice.

Our relations is good in the sense that we get along each other so far. But honestly I don't know what would be her reactions if I asked. I only refrain from asking her plan because it is somehow personal/family issue. Asking the time for dissertation proposal might be really good one to start.

[fuzzylogician]

Frankly it would be premature and presumptuous for you to bring up her future plans when she's not said anything about it. Not taking on a new student now that she has to take care of two children with her husband away seems like a perfectly reasonable decision, and aside from that your only clue here is "I assume she will prioritize her family above her career, and therefore move to her husband's location (I do not apparently think that the husband will make similar sacrifices)". It's really not your place to share these thoughts with her, and I doubt that they would go over well. It's just none of your business. If she does move, she'll need to figure out things like continuation of advising relationships and the possibility of bringing current students over, but I'm sure you realize that she can't tell you anything now one way or the other. That said, usually if a professor leaves, the department will do its best to take care of the students who are left behind, but the situation will obviously be far from ideal for all concerned.  I understand that this is not what you want to hear and that it's unfair, but she has to make her own decisions before she can share anything with her students. It's probably also not entirely up to her if and when she has all the information she needs to make a decision.

So as I see it your options are to wait and see, or to take action now based on your assumptions. If so, it seems that finding another advisor either at your school or elsewhere would be the easiest move, and that's something to decide very soon because (1) you may need to submit an official application even if you already have a guarantee you'll be accepted, and certainly if not. (2) funding decisions will be made based on the current applicant pool, so if you wait too long there might not be any money left to fund you. As for visa issues, it'll be annoying but not impossible. What might be trickier will be getting letters of recommendation from your current school (important for showing that you're leaving on good terms, for reasons related to fit and not performance), and not burning any bridges, so you'll have to approach this carefully. 

You might bring up this question of the dissertation but it seems a bit far-fetched to me as a second year. A more realistic discussion you might have involves summer plans for the coming year. I.e., you might try to ascertain if she knows if/when she'll be away, to coordinate your own travel plans with hers. If you are thinking of doing an internship, you might want to again aim to be gone during times when your advisor is away, so you can work with them more while they are around. She may or may not know (and may or may not share anything with you), but I think at least this is a legitimate question to bring up around now, because these summer plans get decided quickly and usually in the winter/early spring. You might also find a way of asking about something that might happen next year (a course she's supposed to give? some class you take in third year?), again to bring up the planning-for-the-future question. And if the conversation seems to go the right way, you might very delicately ask if she thinks that given her plans and yours, it might be wise for you to get an MS and apply for PhD programs at other schools in the coming cycle or in the next one.